DIY
DIY Shrinky Dink Jewelry with a Free Flower Template
May
Spring is in the air! It’s the perfect time to make these cute and fun shrinky dink flowers. Just download and print the shrinky sheet here to make all of your favorite rings, necklace pendants, earrings and more. They are full of colorful and joyous flowers!
Making shrinky dinks is a fun and simple camp-style craft that can be so creative. You can use shrinky dinks in a ton of different ways and you can use your own art or use a template like this Flower Template here to create so many different styles and colors of shrinky dinks. So let’s get started!
Supplies to Make DIY Shrinky Dink Flower Jewelry
This Shrinky Dink Flower Printable Template
An Inkjet Printer
Clear or White Printable Grafix Shrink Film (or another brand)
Scissors
E6000 Glue
Jewelry Findings (such as barrette blanks, ring blanks, earring blanks)
A Hole Punch (if you want to make dangly earrings or necklace pendants)
Jump Rings & Needle Nose Pliers (if you want to make dangly earrings or necklaces)
That’s it! And if you want to just make the flower shrinky dinks and don’t want to make them into jewelry all you need is: shrink paper, scissors and a printer.
What Brand of Shrink Paper is Best?
Unfortunately Shrinky Dink brand of paper was sold a few years ago and since then has waivered in quality. Sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s terrible! That’s why I always use Grafix Shrink Film. It’s an artist grade alternative that comes in a rainbow of colors. You can find it in:
clear, matte, white, black, super sanded, Inkjet Printable clear and white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, metallic gold, and silver.
For this project we’re going to use either printable – I used printable clear but you could use printable clear or white.
Some Basic Shrinky Dink Tips
Any time you make Shrinky Dinks, there are a few things you should know. First, you may notice that the color is pretty light on our shrinkable flower template. That’s because as the plastic shrinks, the color will also condense.
The Shrinky Dinks also change size, as they become thicker, they also become smaller. The finished pieces will be about 1/8 of their original size. This is important to consider when planning your pieces!
Shrinky Dinks do not always shrink evenly. And even if they look flat when you take them out of the oven, they may not remain flat when they are cool. That’s why you should always remove them from their cooking tray and place them on a flat surface under a book while they are still warm.
Any other tips, you can learn along the way – they are a lot of fun!
How to Print the Flower Shrinky Template
To make these shrinkies, download the template here or from button above. The template is finished and ready to print! Place the printable Grafix Shrink Film (or any printable shrinky dinks) in a inkjet printer. Any printer that creates heat is not suitable for this project.
Make sure your color print settings are on and consider changing your “Media & Layout” image quality to “Best.” If you want the cutest finished flower jewelry you can change these settings, but it’s not required.
How to Cut Out Your Flowers
Use large, sharp scissors to cut out your individual flowers. Remember, the edges of your cut paper, will become the edges of the finished flower. So you want your edges to be cut crisp and evenly.
You can leave even borders around the flowers, or cut them right up to the edges of the petals.
If you want to make your shrinkies into necklace pendants or dangly earrings, you will need to use a regular sized hole punch to make your finished flowers hangable.
Make sure that your punched hole is completely inside the edges of the shrinky paper. With that in mind, you may want to cut a large border around the flower so that you are not punching through the flower petals if you want to make them into a necklace or earring set.
How to Heat Your Shrinky Dinks
To bake your shrinkies, use a toaster oven or a regular oven set to 325°F. Place the cut out flowers on a baking sheet face up. Bake for around 2-3 minutes until the following things happen.
First it will curl, warble, and warp as the paper shrinks. Then it will uncurl, and begin to flatten. Once it uncurls and appears thicker and smaller, remove it from the heat immediately. If you leave the shrinkies in the oven too long they will brown and the color will be ruined.
Place the Shrinkies Under a Book
Once your shrinkies are removed from the oven, immediately remove them from the baking tray and place them on a flat surface underneath a large heavy object. Leave them there until they are cool.
Then once they are cooled you can attach the jewelry findings!
How to Make Finished Shrinky Dink Jewelry
To make your flowers into finished Shrinky Dink jewelry, you will either need E6000 and jewelry findings if you did not punch any holes. Now if you did punch holes to make dangly earrings and necklace pendants jump rings and needle nose pliers in addition to a necklace chain and french earring hooks.
For simple jewelry, just use a tiny dab of E6000 on the jewelry finding where you want it to attach to the shrinky. Make sure it’s firmly in place and allow the glue to set for 24 hours before wearing.
To open jump rings, use needle nose pliers to open it into a spiral shape. Don’t ever open jump rings into a Pac Man shape. Attach the flower to the jump ring and also attach the necklace or French earring hooks. Then close the jump ring. To close a jump ring, make sure you close it into a perfect circle with no gaps in the circle opening.
Then wear your DIY Shrinky Dink Jewelry anytime! Or give them as gifts. Whatever you choose to do, aren’t they so cute, fun and easy to make? Best of all, you can find even more free Shrinky Dink Printables below!
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