well I hope it has been a creative weekend and you have been whipping up some fabulous Easter creations to be enjoyed in your home and with your family. I know I have been creating all sorts of goodies for the upcoming holiday. Today though I want to tell you about my shrinky dink bracelet project. I knew immediately when I heard this idea as we were brainstorming that I wanted to give it a try. My 5 year old daughter loves shrinky dinks so this was a fun project for us to tackle together.
First lets talk about the supplies you will need:
Shrinky Dink Plastic Sheets, jumprings, your jewelry printable .pdf file from the site, pliers, miscellaneous buttons, your printer and some type of jewelry closure (I used a toggle closure). Now the shrinky dink plastic I used I purchased at Hobby Lobby and it is specifically for inkjet printers. Just read on the packaging and make sure you can run it through your printer…some are not made for that. My plastic was bright white in color and there was a right and wrong side to print on so make sure you read the instructions before printing on it.
Tips and Tricks that I have found work (as well as some great tips from our customers that have been emailed in….thanks!):
1. Again, make sure you read the instructions that come with the plastic to make sure you print on the right side of the material, if not the ink will not dry and will just wipe right off.
2. I did find that on the bright white plastic the colors were darker than I wanted my charms to be so I did lighten the colors a bit in my print settings…you can also use a clear plastic which I have been told makes the colors truer to what you see on your screen.
3. Punch your holes for your charms before you bake them in the oven.
4. Jumprings was all I needed to put between the charms and buttons but if you were wanting to make more serious jewelry to wear longterm you would want to get some stronger jewelers jumprings. (Michael’s has a good selection of jewelry supplies)
5. Have fun!!! There are endless ways this printable page can be used. Make charms to embellish place cards, gift cards, tags, layouts. Make pendants for necklaces, charm bracelets…there are so many ways these can be used. (Just think of all the cute charms you could make with this brush kit as well.)
As always, if you have questions about any of the techniques here email us, we would love to hear from you!
janet@houseof3.com
April 6th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Loved this bracelet, really cute! If you print your printer on transparency setting, the colors will be lighter when you shrink them. Thanks Janet, cute project!
April 6th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I made mine into a necklace by adding lengths of silk bias tabe and I love it! Thanks, Janet!
April 6th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
What I meant to say was “tape”.
April 7th, 2009 at 2:58 am
Very Cute! These also would make great charms to hang from your mini books!
April 7th, 2009 at 8:46 am
i just love this project! i’m making a bracelet for my daughter as well as some individual dangle charms (add a jump ring & a lobster claw clasp) that i can give out to friends to add to their charm bracelets! too cute!
April 15th, 2009 at 8:52 am
My fellow on Orkut shared this link and I’m not dissapointed that I came to your blog.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:59 am
I loved this idea!! I am making eight of them for a church function to give out as gifts! thanks for the idea!!
September 11th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
I found your blog through a friends blog and this is a great blog to look at some cool things. thanks and bookmarkigng and I am even going to tweet this out to all my friends.
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