Shrinky Dinks have been around for decades and have never really lost their popularity.  It is easy to use the ink jet version and print out what you want.  Check out this easy Shrink Plastic Butterfly Necklace Tutorial by Mark Montano.  He used vintage butterfly images and shared a printable download on his site.  You can always check out The Graphics Fairy or publicdomainvectors.org for other copyright free images.


The video shows how fun and easy it is.

Some tips - use some cardboard or a glass dish to really flatten the pieces once they come out of the oven. You have to make the holes for the jump rings before you shrink the pieces - it is much to bothersome to drill after!  If you do print in color, print a faded version as the color does become darker when shrunk down. I would also use a few coats of a spray varnish to protect the images afterwards.

Shrinky Dinks is a well known brand.  There are other brands and they are not all the same.  So try and see which one you prefer.

It's the sort of project that one can share with the younger set.  But it is also a great way to do some artwork anything from cat butt earrings to really gorgeous shrink plastic jewelry designs by Passionflower.

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Original Post by THE BEADING GEM
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