St Patrick's Day is right around the corner. I thought I would create a fun little retro craft to make in celebration! Remember making shrinky dinks as a kid? Well I thought it would be fun to create some St Patrick's Day themed charms that are festive and versatile. So c'mon; get re-connected with your inner child, get out your colored pencils and shrinky dinks and let's get to it:
I made some graphics for you to print and trace;
Click here to get your free PDF.
O.K., now let's gather up your supplies:
If you just want to make shrinky dinks you will not need the hole punch, jewelry accessories or the ribbon but if you want these to be charms then you will need these extras. Gather together
1. Colored pencils (permanent markers may also be used).
2. Free Printable
3. Tape
4. Standard sized hole punch. (Optional, to make charms)
5. Sharp scissors
6. Ribbon, jewelry rings, keyrings (or other accessories to hang your charms on such as necklaces) (Optional to make charms).
7. One other thing not pictured above is you will need a grocery bag to bake your shrinky dinks on (just your standard brown paper grocery bag).
All these supplies should be readily available at your local craft store, including the simple jewelry supplies.
O.k., you want to start by taping your template picture under the transparent shrinky dink sheet. There is a rough side and a smooth side. You will want to color the rough side so with the rough side facing up, tape your graphics underneath.
It is hard to see but this is the rough side facing up. You want to tape your graphics underneath.
I have flipped the paper over and I am taping the image to the back (the smooth side).
Here is the fun part. Get out your coloring implements and color away. I like to outline the images in black, then color them in but use your creative license here and have a ball! (Do not use washable markers on these. Stick with colored pencils and permanent markers, as per the shrinky dink instructions.)
Here it is outlined and colored in. For the simple circle image, you can just cut around the circle but for the non-circle images, leave about a 1/4 inch border when cutting around them.
After cutting, find a nice place to punch a hole. This will be where you add your ribbon, clasp, or ring to hang your charm.
Finished tracing and coloring the rest of the images.
Leaving a nice little 1/4 inch border when cutting around the non-circle images.
Here they are all cut out with borders and strategic hole punches. As you can see I cut a grocery bag to fit inside my toaster oven. The shrinky dink instructions recommend that you bend a corner of the grocery bag upwards so you will have a handle to pull it out when it is done. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F (163 C). Place your shrinky dinks colored side UP on the bag. Now place in the middle rack of the oven and watch them shrink (don't walk away, this happens very rapidly.) The instructions recommend 1-3 minutes but I just watched until they curled up and then completely flattened back down. It didn't seem more than a minute.
Here they are all baked and shrunken. You want to let them cool and harden a few seconds before handling. Now add some rings to hang them from and you got yourself some festive St Patty's day charms!
Adding a small ring
Adding some ribbon to make a necklace. See the key ring and clasp in the upper left corner? These can all be found at the local craft store and are great to hang your charms from as a fun key chain or just use the clasp to attach them to your backpack, purse or zipper pouch.
Hope you have a fun St Patrick's Day and that the leprechauns are good to you!
Warmly,
Pam