Shrinky Dink Pendants

I loved Shrinky Dinks when I was a kid. Coloring them, watching them in the oven, then playing with my finished product. When I learned that you could buy shrink paper at the office supply store - I HAD to try!!!

Here's what you need:
Shrink paper - I got mine from amazon
Permanent markers (Sharpies work great, Bic makes some good ones too. Do NOT use plain old kids' markers - they won't work...I tried)
Cookie sheet
Scissors
Hole Punch
Wire
Ribbon

Here's what you do:
1. Cut the shapes you want your pendants to be from your shrink paper. We wanted round - so we just made a bunch of circles. When planning your final pendant size - remember that the paper shrinks to about 50% the original size.

2. Cut a hole at the top of each shape (this is what you'll use to string the pendant at the end. If you wait until the end to punch the hole it won't work).  I also had a heart-shaped hole punch from our Valentine's Day Paintchip Bookmarks project, so we punched holes in a few (which turned out CUTE!). If you don't want to use wire to fasten your pendant to the ribbon - and just loop it through - make the hole considerably bigger than the hole-punch size. The standard hole punch holes shrunk to about the size of a buttonhole.

3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

4. Color your cut-out shrink paper with the permanent markers. Have fun with it! The kids made some wearable art for their grandmother, I made a gift for a friend, and we just had fun doodling.

5. Place colored shrink paper on cookie sheet and place in oven.

6. "Cook" until they have shrunk. Takes about five minutes. First they'll get all warped-looking, then they'll flatten out. You'll know they're done when they flatten out.

The mid-cooking "warped" stage

7. Take them out and remove from the cookie sheet. You can use a spatula to help. They'll be about half the size they originally were, and about 4 times the thickness (about the thickness of a button).

8. Cut a piece of wire and loop through hole at top of pendant.

9. Slide ribbon through wire loop, tie, and you've got a necklace!!

10. Add two to the ribbon for a charm-bracelet kind of look.