Shrinky Dinks Earrings

A few months ago I made these earrings out of Shrinky Dinks. It’s Shrinky Dinks made especially for inkjet printers. My inspiration came from this gorgeous download by Yasmine at A Print A Day. I love the vibrant colors and, of course, the flowers so I bookmarked this page knowing that I needed to do something creative with it and it wasn’t too long before I remembered that I had the Shrinky Dinks inkjet paper on hand.

All the supplies for this project can be found at Michaels. I purchased a 2″ hole paper cutter with my 40% off coupon but you could just as easily trace a juice glass.

Supplies:
~ Shrinky Dinks for inkjet printers
~ 2″ hole paper cutter or equivalent size juice glass
~ Regular ole paper punch
~ Earwires – I always use sterling silver but you can find less expensive alternatives
~ Jump rings

The instructions given with the Shrinky Dinks, either in the package or online, are easy to follow. The design must be printed lighter because it becomes much darker when it shrinks. The 2″ hole paper cutter worked great on the Shrinky Dinks paper/plastic. I didn’t use the tracing a juice glass method since I knew I could never cut a perfect circle. Also, figure that the image will shrink to less than 1/2 the original size. Here’s the before and after:

Once you’ve cut out your 2″ circle be sure to use the regular paper punch before you do the baking. This is where the design will hang from the earwire.  Look at your design to know where the top looks best and then punch just shy of the edge. The hole will shrink perfectly to allow for your earwire or jump ring.

The baking time is quick, less than 5 minutes! They curl up before they lay flat. When I took them out and before they cooled I put another piece of paper over the top and pressed to lay them even flatter.

Once they’ve cooled take an earwire and open the back loop, see above image inside the orange circle. I have tools to do this but you can use your fingers.  Open to either side rather than pulling it open to the back, slip on your design and then close up the earwire loop.  You may find that you need more room than the earwire provides and in that case you will need an open jump ring pictured above.  By “open” I mean that it has been cut and you are able to spread it apart to place your earwire and Shrinky Dinks design.  And again, open the jump ring to either side rather than pulling it directly apart.  Doing it to either side lessens the amount the metal gets bent and possibly disfigured.  If you use a jump ring you will have to do some adjusting with the earwire to make the design face corrrectly.  With my fingers, I just bend the loop  at the bottom of the earwire to the position that makes my design face front.

I can see making a ton of these if I had daughters with pierced ears. But since I don’t my next project is to make a dog tag for Stella.

Tags: Color, crafts, Jewelry Making, Tutorial

• June 21, 2010
• Jewelry
• 2 Comments