Project: Shrinky Dink Charms

I've wanted to make labels for my jewelry pieces and decorative pulls for my sparklicious bags, so I have been experimenting with shrinky dinks. I made some using colored pencils and sharpie markers and when I shrunk them I didn't like the results, specifically the uneven color from the pencils and the bleeding from the markers. I know that they make specific shrinky dinks that can be sent through your printer, but I had stacks of the regular kind (for colored pencils and markers) that I wanted to use. I finally decided to run a regular sheet through my printer to see what would happen and this is what I found out, regular shrink plastics can be used in your home printer, but when you print use the draft or economy ink setting and allow the ink to dry before cutting them out, also remember to reverse any text that you use.

Here are some before shrinking. I really like to use shading to give the charms extra detailing. I punch holes in them before shrinking with a small hole punch. I made these in microsoft word using premade shape templates, changing the coloring and shading, and adding text.Here they are after shrinking, notice how some of them are darker, those were printed without using the draft setting. There are also some that I hand colored on the bottom. To get smooth edges I used a round 1" craft punch to make some and the rest I cut out with very sharp scissors.Here's a detail showing the difference between draft(left) and regular(right). The regular printing makes the ink bleed slightly making some of the charms difficult to read. To finish them I color the edges with a paint pen or sharpie marker and then I coat the back with diamond glaze to keep them from scratching. I like using them for labeling my jewelry and purses because they can be easily removed and I can color coordinate them to each piece.