Just like the shrinky dinks you played with as a kid, but cheap and good for the earth!

Check it out!

• Part 1: HOW TO- Doodle Charms – Jewelry from recycled plastic
• Part 2: What would happen if..? (The Shrinky Dink Test Lab)
• Part 3: More experimentation in the Shrinky Dink Test Lab
• Part 4 of the Shrinky Dink Test lab: Successful sealing.. maybe
• Shrinky Dinkies – Special Edition : Make Wraparound Wine Glass Markers

Here’s one of my favorite party projects, from July 4th a few years ago… Shrinky Stemware Charms made from recyclable #6 plastic (like from to-go containers)!

“For the 4th of July, my husband and best friend were running the Peachtree Road Race, so I decided to have brunch at my house and invite over friends for mimosas and food. Since we were doing mimosas (champagne and OJ for the uninitiated), i figured everyone would be drinking out of stemmed glasses and they’d get mixed up, so what about making some fun, temporary glass markers using shrinky dinks. I made up 6 the night before on a whim, and they were quite loved by all, but the funny part was that the morning turned into a shrinky dink party as everyone wanted to try and make their own (both more glass markers, and other fun stuff).”

Go Read the Whole thing and get the How-to! Shrinky Dink Stemware Charms

Here’s some more cool Independence Day links, too!

• Dessert and Drink ideas for the 4th of July from An Opera Singer in the Kitchen
• Creative July 4th Party Ideas at Tip Junkie
• A Frozen Trio of Red, White, and Blue (sort of) at Perry’s Plate

• Recipe: Coconut Granita with Lychees (she suggests adding red and blue fruit for 4th of July colors!) at Zakka Life
• Mega-crafty’s cupkins for July: Cupkins: 4th of July Red, White and Blueberry Muffins …and Red White and Blue Cupcakes from her partner in crime, Ready, Set, Craft!
• More Cupcakes! Independence Day Cupcakes at Ooh Shiny!

• Lots of Decor and Food Fourth of July ideas from Chica and Jo
• Rhubarb, Blueberry & Cream Parfait From the Chronicle Kitchen
• One Pretty Thing’s Fourth of July Roundup Here, and more 4th of July here!

• July 4 Roundup at Dollar Store Crafts (lots of cupcake ideas…)
• Love this Nautical Crab Boil at Design*Sponge
• Hot ‘n’ Smoky Baked Beans from Niki, here at Foodwhirl!
• And here’s Rawls’ Potato Salad, if you need more food…

And More from Foodwhirl:

• Red, White & Blue Strawberries
• Spotlight: Blueberry Cobbler Bars
• Happy 4th! – Holiday Food ideas… a Foodwhirl Roundup

Now you know I prefer to make shrinkies using #6 plastic recyclables, rather than buying the storebought materials, but this idea from Photojojo is pretty nifty:  Make Photo Necklaces, Earrings, Magnets and More Using Shrinkable Plastic

Other clever uses:

• Rachel at Craftzine shows how she used Shrink Plastic to make cake decorations!
• Make a Pet-tag with instructions from CraftStylish
• How about Shrinky Brain Scan earrings? Nifty!

Wanna make your own?

Dabbled shrinky resources/tutorials:

• Instructable – Make Doodle Earrings (great place to start on basic homemade shrinky info)
• All the Posts in the Shrinky Dinks Test Lab Series (here)

Some Dabbled Shrinky Projects:

• Make a $1 Bracelet with homemade Shrinky Charms
• Quick and dirty shrinky ID Tags from Plastic Cups!
• Santa Christmas Ornament (Template included)
• Doodle Earrings
• Wrap Around Wine Glass Markers (Charms)

Hope you all enjoyed the shrinky dinks test lab… I sure did!
A reminder, I want to see your creations. If you’re on Flickr, add your pictures to the new Dabbled pool, and/or put a comment here (with a link to your blog) or one of the other Test Lab posts. If we get enough fun stuff, i’ll do a spotlight on readers’ shrinkies :)

Also, be sure to check out the comments, because there are alot of talented people who posted their experiences, especially with sealing, and there is good info to be had.

Here are links to all the posts, for your ease of reading pleasure.

Part 1: HOW TO- Doodle Charms – Jewelry from recycled plastic

This section is a good basic tutorial on how to make shrinky jewerly from old takeout containers, with just sharpies, scissors, a hole punch, and a bit of creativity.  Be sure to read the comments, there are extra tips there about how long to heat them, and whether there are issues with fumes, and some other good points.

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Part 2: What would happen if..? (The Shrinky Dink Test Lab)

This section is the first of the experiments.  We cover several cool ideas, like drawing on the front and back of the plastic.  Also we tried several ways of sealing the charm, which produced different effects.  You could totally incorporate these effects into your design.  The comments include several good suggestions for other methods of sealing the shrinky.

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Part 3: More experimentation in the Shrinky Dink Test Lab

The second day of odd experiments included what would happen if you sealed the shrinky PRIOR to shrinking, as well as a really neat effect using spraypaint.  We also shrink non-flat plastic (the side of a to-go box) and make a ring out of it.  And we combine several of the techniques to make a giant suncatcher, seeing just how big a shrinky we can make!  Finally, we use colored pencils, rather than Sharpies, to color our design.

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Part 4 of the Shrinky Dink Test lab: Successful sealing.. maybe

This is the post where the commenters really come through.  Not only do we have the (mixed) results of my sealing using polyurethane, the commenter pipe up with a bunch of other solutions, and several do their own tests to really give us all the data.  If you’re interested in sealing, this is the post to read (including the comments).

Shrinky Dinkies – Special Edition : Make Wraparound Wine Glass Markers

This is not really part of the test lab, but was a fun project tutorial to make temporary wine glass markers.  Plus the idea of doing a shrinky making party with your friends!

2/09: More Shrinky projects:
Funky cool Bracelet
Shrinky Xmas Ornament
Shrinky Wine glass markers

• Shrinky Dinky Test Lab – Intro
• Shrinky Dinky Test Lab – Part 1 – How to make Doodle earrings
• Part 2: Experiments
• Special Holiday Edition – Glass markers and a Shrinky Party
• Part 4: Sealing

Tomorrow: How to successfully seal your shrinkies.. maybe…

Part 3 – More experiments:

1) What happens if you coat your shrinky in clear coat, PRIOR to shrinking?
Let’s use the lightening effect to our advantage for an interesting watercolor effect. And create an opaque effect! Note, we did get some cloudyness where the spray top coat was on too thick, but it IS unusual!

2) Let’s color on the back, then spray the back with paint – in this case a black design, sprayed white. Worked really well. If the paint doesn’s protect your design enough, you can now seal it with whatever you would seal the paint with.

3) Let’s color a scrap piece from the side of the box (what a pain!) and make a ring out of it! Fun, silly, and please don’t burn your fingers (follow the same basic instructions as the glass marker project.

4) Let’s see how large a shrinky we can make if we use the whole top of the to-go box, and we’ll use the opaque technique from test (1) to make it an opaque suncatcher. I’m going to hang this with several others as a homemade mobile.

5) Let’s do one with colored pencils! (note: you have to sand the surface to get the pencils to write, I did this with watercolor pencils because that’s what i had on hand.) Not bad, but i don’t like how the clear plastic looks where I roughed up the surface.

Coming Next: How you REALLY should seal your shrinkies.
(See All Shrinky Dinky Test Lab!)

Oh yeah, and you know me, i need validation that I didn’t write all this up for it never to be seen by human eyes… so don’t forget that posting a comment on one of the posts in this series enters you in the drawing to win some of the output of the experiments!

For the 4th of July, my husband and best friend were running the Peachtree Road Race, so I decided to have brunch at my house and invite over friends for mimosas and food. Since we were doing mimosas (champagne and OJ for the uninitiated), i figured everyone would be drinking out of stemmed glasses and they’d get mixed up, so what about making some fun, temporary glass markers using shrinky dinks. I made up 6 the night before on a whim, and they were quite loved by all, but the funny part was that the morning turned into a shrinky dink party as everyone wanted to try and make their own (both more glass markers, and other fun stuff).

So, here’s the skinny on the so cool glass markers:

These are definitely temporary/disposable, as the only way to remove them is to break them off. But they were quick and easy, and would be great for a party, shower, or something like that. You could do them all personalized with people’s names, even.

Basically, you follow the basic shrinky dinks from #6 Plastic containers (like to-go boxes) from Parts 1 & 2. Do a long thin strip (about 3/4 in wide), write whatever word (or whatever) you want on one side, then color in on the back as you like. For this I did some 4th of July themed, like “Liberty” above, and some more silly (like a gay flag with Tipsy in the center for a particular friend). Shrink as directed, but as soon as it’s done (while it’s still ‘burn your fingers’ hot) take it out and quickly wrap it around the stem of a stemmed glass before it cools. (you should probably wear gloves for this, but i didn’t, i just did it quick.)

For brunch, everyone thought they were so cool they wanted to get into the action, so they were all taking the scraps i had left and making their own. A shrinky dinks party would be a pretty cool party in itself!

The Party-goers get into making their own!