After years of them saying we did not need our own Christmas tree since we always visit my grandparents for Christmas, I convinced my parents we should have a tree at our house.
They were concerned about my cat Cricket climbing the tree or playing with the ornaments, so I promised that I would keep a close eye on him to make sure he was good.
We don’t have a lot of store bought ornaments to decorate our tree so I decided I should make my own. I invited my friend Lydia over to make Shrinky Dink ornaments.
Lydia thought other people might like to make their own Shrinky Dink ornaments, so we made a tutorial.
You will need Shrink film, I got mine at the local craft store and a few other basic supplies; scissors, a hole punch, and colored pencils. You will need a grown up to help with a few of the steps so it is good to make sure you have one close by.
You will need to decide how you are going to decorate your ornaments, shrink film is clear which means it is easy to trace pictures and color them in. I found a bunch of coloring pages I liked online and printed them out.
If you don’t want to use coloring pages you can use rubber stamps, or you can draw your own pictures as well. One nice thing about Shrinky Dinks is that everything, including mistakes, get smaller when you bake them, so your ornaments do not have to be perfect.
Lydia and I each picked a picture and taped a sheet of shrink film to the page.
Once the film was taped down I carefully traced the picture. You can use a Sharpie but a black colored pencil works too.
When you are done tracing color your picture however you want.
The shrink film will be clear after you bake it so make sure you color any parts you want white with colored pencil.
Once you finish your design carefully cut the corners and have a grown up use the hole punch to make a hole in the top. You need to remember to put the hole in before you shrink it, after it has been baked it will be impossible to create a hole, and you will not be able to hang it up.
Now you are ready to watch the magic happen. Have a grown up set the oven or a toaster oven to the temperature on the package and follow the directions on the shrink film package. If your oven has a window you can watch the ornament shrink!
Even if you want to pick it up right away make sure you wait until it is cooled, you don’t want to burn your fingers. When it is cool and the grown up says it is ok to touch it you can put a ribbon or string through the hole you made, and your ornament is done!
Lydia and I both made a few ornaments to decorate our trees. We held one set up next to the coloring sheets they came from so you can see how much they shrink.
Did you make any holiday decorations this year?
