Prior to heating, the plastic sheets can be colored with felt-tip pens, acrylic paint, colored pencils, etc. When heated with the Easy-Bake Oven, a conventional oven, or a heat gun, the plastic shrinks and becomes thicker and more rigid, while retaining the colored design. I remember sticking everything from badge pins and brooch pins to them to magnets and cardboard (to turn them into bookmarks)! If wikiHow has helped you, please consider a small contribution to support us in helping more readers like you. The kits we used to use as kids came with rough sided plastic that you could easily decorate with the included colored pencils.

Shrinky Dinks Earrings - Etsy UK Shrinky Dinks Earrings - Etsy UK

In 2014, a team from Harvard University and MIT used Shrinky Dinks to create self-assembling robots.I remember going into convulsions over the Star Wars ones, although memory defeats me whether they were from cereal or crisps.

Shrinky Dinks Create and Wear Cool Stuff Craft Kit - Argos

It seemed like they were everywhere when I was a kid, but over the years have become harder and harder to find. Take fine sandpaper and lightly scratch the entire surface of the plastic so it’s rough and will hold the color of your medium. In the early 80s some bright spark realised that if you grill crisp packets, they would shrink to create smaller forms of themselves. Nothing was more entertaining than coloring those rough plastic pages with the tiny little colored pencils and then watching them shrivel up into cute little charms.I would still be concerned about using the toaster for food afterward–as you said, can’t be too careful. I love the idea of letting kids do open-ended art, but I find that parents like product art much better than process art, so I try to show the kids both.

Shrinky Dinks - Do You Remember? Shrinky Dinks - Do You Remember?

You may also want to take a toaster oven outside to avoid fumes inside, or preheat the grill and shrink them in there. Maybe you can get some shrinky dink plastic and next time you come across a number 5, save it for this. You may want to add decorative edges to the plastic, cut out your design, or punch holes in it to make it into a necklace or charms for a bracelet. Keep in mind, colors will be more intense when the designs shrink up, so use that knowledge to your advantage.

if you didn't want to colour in a specific picture you could also get plain sheets where you could design, coulour in and create your own Shrinky Dinks. You’ll get a much better result using a permanent marker on the plastic than any other type of medium. Wasn't sure where to put this one, but as they were free in boxes of cereals, I think Food and Drink are quite apt.