D-I-Y Shrinky Dinks

photo/idea credit
Cudos to SkipToMyLou.org for this fantastic idea for repurposing old #6 plastic into art.  Here's a tutorial on how to make homemade shrinky dinks.

Supplies Needed:

• permanent markers
• regular hole punch
• #6 plastic
• oven
• cookie sheet covered with aluminum foil or parchment paper
• scissors to cut the plastic

Cut a shape out of the plastic (plastic shrinks about 1/3 of the original size). Our 2" circle became about 3/4" when shrunk.

Color one side of the shape with permanent marker.  The color becomes more intense once shrunk. If you are wanting to attach your shape to something don't forget to punch a hole before placing in the oven.

Place the plastic on a thin cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Bake plastic at 350 degrees for 2- 3 minutes. You will see the plastic curl up and then it will flatten back out. It does give off some fumes so we left a window open for ventilation!

We added a jump ring to some of our shapes and strung on cording along with beads to make necklaces.

Some of the small shapes we placed on id wire rings along with some beads to make beverage markers.  Ball started as a 2" circle, finished size was about 3/4".  Tag started 3" long by 1 3/4" wide, finished size was about 1 1/4" long by just under 3/4" wide.

On a larger shaped tag (starting size 4? long by 2 3/4" wide) we placed a clip so it could be a zipper pull.  Punch two holes size by side to make the finished hole big enough for the clip.

Then we really got rolling and made rings.  They are just too cool. It took some trial and error to find the right size. For my size I started with a strip 5" long by about 1" to 1 1/2" wide. Pull it immediately from the oven and quickly while it is still very hot wrap it around a Chap-stick tube. My son needed to make his 5 1/2 inches long and I (an adult must do this part--it is hot and you must work fast!) wrapped it around a child's chunky marker. 

After we had used every piece of plastic my son said ---------bracelets!  We could make bracelets. So we are now saving more plastic!

Notes:
I was able to use a regular ink pad and stamp designs on the plain plastic with great results!
Look for the #6 stamp on the bottom of the clear containers

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• #6 - PS: polystyrene is used in takeout food containers. 
• I did think the melting plastic left a lingering odor in my oven. Before using my oven for food I turned it on to 400 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes to get rid of the smell.