DIY shrink plastic typography pendants

I played with shrink plastic in the toaster oven last night to make some fun typographic pendants.

I used white shrink film sheets made by Grafix, purchased at a local craft store. (Rumor has it that Shrinky Dink brand plastic is a little better, especially if you plan to make larger items. It curls less. But Grafix worked just fine for this.)


How to make your own pendants:
Print out images to trace onto plastic. They should be 250% larger than the intended finished size. Download my ampersand and "hey" shapes here, or make your own words or characters—try asterisks or names! I used Helvetica for the ampersand and Pacifico (a free font) for "hey."

With a pencil, trace shapes onto the shrink film. If you're using glossy film and it's difficult to make pencil lines show up, roughen the surface of the plastic a bit with sandpaper first.


Cut out the holes in the shapes with an X-Acto knife and trim the outer edges with a scissors. Punch a hole at the top if desired; I used a 1/8" punch.

Erase any pencil lines from the edges or they'll be baked on.

Following the instructions on your film package, bake the pieces in a conventional oven or toaster oven. I laid my shapes on a piece of cardboard and stuck them in a 300 degree toaster oven. I watched them like a hawk, yanking them out and flattening them a bit if it looked like the edges were curling so much they might stick together. Then I put them back in the oven to finish baking. Don't be horrified by the crazy curling that happens; as long as the edges don't get stuck together, the shapes should flatten out by themselves. When they stop shrinking (2-3 minutes), pull them out and press them with a spatula or more cardboard while they're still hot to get them perfectly flat.


Add a jump ring and chain, and you're all set.

Sometimes things don't work

See this plastic picture frame? It was going to be a cute little desk frame for wallet-size photos, made with the plastic shrink film you heat in the oven. Except it curled up like a piece of bacon. Maybe Salvador Dali would have appreciated it, but I threw it in the trash.

An inkjet printable product gave me good results once before, so I opted to try the white, non-inkjet sheets made by Graphix (purchased at a local hobby shop).

I made a quick paper template to trace, sized 200% larger than the final frame would be. I traced it onto the plastic sheet and colored it with a permanent marker. Then I cut out the front of the frame, a piece for the backing, and a stand to attach to the back.

I baked the front of the frame for three minutes on a piece of cardboard with a sheet of parchment paper on top to prevent curling, per the instructions. Here's the before and after. Boo. This is what it looks like after I flattened the hot frame with a spatula. I tried another one and it was even worse.

Here's the back piece for the frame. It used to be a rectangle. I tried placing a thin sheet of cardboard on top of the parchment layer to hold it down during baking, and the plastic went crazy.

I plan to submit it to a modern art museum where it will fit right in with the rest of the objets d'art. This thing just went from a cheapo craft project to a sculpture worth thousands. Awesome!

A shrinky plastic project

Readymade magazine sent me a sample of their shrinky sheets awhile back (you know—that Shrinky Dink stuff from when you were a kid). And I've finally gotten around to trying them out. I know I'm going to make Readymade very happy when I say this, but OH MY GOSH, IT'S SO FUN! I used some of my own designs (you might see more soon; stay tuned!), and here's the result.

How to make:
1. Inkjet, draw, or paint on the sheets.
2. Cut them out.
3. Hole-punch them if you want.
4. Bake at 325º for 2 or 3 minutes on a piece of cardboard.

They'll curl up and then flatten out in the oven. After you take them out, you can mash them flat with a spatula when they're still hot if they didn't flatten quite enough. My printouts were about 230% larger than the finished product turned out. I wanted the circles to end up 1.5 inches in diameter, so I printed them at 3.5 inches.

There were two kinds of sheets in the sample kit: white and clear. The photo above shows the white kind. Below are the clear ones followed by a side-by-side comparison.



If you want to make some too, you can buy the sheets in the Readymade store, at Dick Blick, or just google for inkjet shrink film.