Materials
- Grafix Shrink Plastic in White
- Poly Shrink Shrink Plastic in Black
- image of a bear or stencil
- thin black Sharpie
- metallic gold and silver Sharpies
- hole punch
- toaster oven
- ball chain
- jump ring
- pliers
Draw or trace your desired shape onto a Shrinky Dinks sheet using a black Sharpie if using white shrink plastic or metallic Sharpies if using black shrink paper. Your pre-shrunk shape should be at least 50 percent larger than what you want it to end up looking like!
Continue to use Sharpies to decorate the cut-outs. You can also use colored pencils on white shrink plastic, just make sure you use sandpaper to roughen up the surface of the shrink plastic first!
Punch a hole through your decorated shape.
When you're done decorating, place the shrink plastic bears into the toaster oven. Follow the directions for your particular brand. I turned my toaster oven to 325 degrees. It took about 2 minutes for them to shrink completely. Once your bears have stopped curling and has flattened itself out, turn off the toaster oven and let them cool.
White bear, before and after shrinking.
Black bear, before and after shrinking.
If you want to make a keychain like I did, use a ball chain and jump ring to secure your bear to the chain.
Compared to the white shrink plastic bear, I wasn't as impressed with how the black shrink plastic bears turned out. A few factors may account for this:
- The cursive "Justine" bear did not flatten completely while in the toaster oven so it has a slightly curved shape
- The gold and silver sharpies were regular Sharpies (black bears) as opposed to the fine-tip black Sharpie (white bear) so the lines were not as precise
- I used different brands of shrink plastic (Grafix for white and PolyShrink for black
- I did not use sandpaper on the Poly Shrink black shrink plastic as directed
Nonetheless, it's impawssible to have too many bear-related items. In fact I'm thinking about making some matching bear earrings and pendants!
♥Justine
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