Saturday, September 22, 2012

Shrinky Dinks

Ethan and I played with Shrinky Dinks today.
 They start off as a think sheet of plastic and then you bake it in the oven and it shrinks and gets thicker and becomes a hard plastic.
 I started with a tester sheet to see what markers worked best and to gauge the sizing. It shrank about 50%, so if you want something to be finished at 2" you have to draw it 4".
 Ethan designed his own Star Wars lego man and a colorful star.
 I wanted to make some pieces for a ring I got for my anniversary. It is from a designer called Charlotte. The rings are really cool. You can change out the pieces to get different looks, but you only have to buy one ring base.
 This is how the pieces look taken apart. The top part can have pieces added to it, then the pin goes through it and it clicks into the base piece. If that doesn't make sense, follow the link above and check out the website. It's really cool!
 I have a few pieces that came with the ring, and a few more from a copy cat ring system that screws together. But I wanted to see if I could make my own. Turns out I can!

Here are some of my favorites and how they look on the ring.
 With that last set I experimented with fingernail polish. It doesn't work to put the polish on before you bake it, but if you paint it on afterwards it turns out great!

And here's my favorite in use.
I had fun watching then curl and shrink, and watching Ethan watch them!

4 comments:

  1. Everything turned out really well! Tell Ethan I thought his stuff was awesome. Love the ring!

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  2. Fun! I have some shrinky dinks around here somewhere, I bet Elora would love them! That ring is too cool. Now to go investigate...

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  3. I have never heard of shrinky dinks, but they look like a lot of fun to do. Thanks for posting.

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  4. That is so fun! I really can't wait to do this stuff with Micah. We color and finger paint but you and adrienne are posting fun stuff!

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