YW Shrinky Dink Key Chains

         

Click here to download the pdf file for the shrinky dinks

You can buy big sheets of plain shrink plastic at pretty much any craft store and it even comes in different finishes; clear, frosted, and canvas white. You can buy a Refill Pack of blank Shrinky Dinks material. Better yet, there is a special shrink plastic product made especially for use with your inkjet printer, that's what I used for this project.  Test it out on paper first to make sure you've got it right.  When your design is ready you need to cut it out (using scissors or an exacto knife) and punch holes if you want them. A 1/8 inch hole punch is best for this.

You can write or draw on them using permanent markers. If you want to use colored pencils, use a piece of sandpaper to roughen the surface of the plastic – be aware that the plastic will be a translucent white when it shrinks. Remember to make a hole in the plastic using a paper punch. (The hole will shrink in size with the plastic.)  Place a piece of aluminum foil on a baking sheet (to protect the sheet if the plastic melts).  Then cook them according to package directions.  Removed the baking sheet and plastic from the oven. If the plastic has curled a little bit, use an old hot pad to push flat.  Otherwise, allow everything to cool before handling.

After baking, the plastic shrinks to about 40% of it's original printed size.  So if you are making your own images, play around with it to figure out what size it needs to be. Take a copy of your original and size it to 40% to see an approximation of the final size then adjust from there. 

I made the last key chain template blank so you could make one of your own.