Shrinky Dinks... Valentine fun!

My oldest daughter is a lot like her mom.  She likes to turn everything into a project!  This year the Princess Valentines were not going to cut it, she wanted to make them.  Luckily for me her favorite medium right now is Shrinky Dinks, which is great because I love them too!

We decided we would make key chains for her class.  I found some really cute conversation heart key chains from Oriental Trading, for really cheap... like 72 for $7.00 (SCORE)!  My daughter still had her heart stuck on Shrinky Dinks, so we added charms to the key chains for each of her class mates.

Items Needed
Shrinky Dink Paper (I found mine at Hobby Lobby)
Key Chain
Key Chain Clasps (circles to connect the charms to the key chain)
Permanent Markers

 Using a standard home printer you can print whatever designs you would like on your Shrinky Dinks paper... this has come along way since my Shrinky Dink days!  For the girls in Princess's class we make cupcake charms, for the boys we made Rock n' Roll guitars!  We also printed the names on her class list.

If you are not familiar with Shrinky Dinks, copy the image several times bigger then you want the end result to be.  It will shrink and become fairly thick.  For example for the names, I printed them at 56 pt font.. after they were shrunk they were more like a 14 pt. font.  So it shrinks quite a bit.

 Color your charms with PERMANENT marker (this is a little scary in our house).  After they are colored, cut the charms out, and with a regular hole punch, punch somewhere around the charm.  Don't go to far in, or they will be hard to get on the key chain.  You will be surprised at how sturdy they are once they are shrunk.  Now they are ready for the oven.

And this best part of Shrinky Dinks... watching them 'shrink' before your very eyes in the oven... I would have done a close up on this but man my oven is dirty!

When you pull them out of the oven you have a SMALL window of opportunity to flatten any pieces that might not have been flattened.

After they are cooled off, I usually spray them with some clear spray paint.  To help keep the color on better.

Now time to assemble the Key Chains. We attached the charms with these pesky miniature key ring things .  Can I just say my fingers are RAW! My sister thankfully helped me with this and her beautifully manicured finger nails are GONE...

But other than that they were a piece of cake!  What type of clasp do you jewlery makers use?

A perfect addition for any backpack!

Don't tell princess... but I like the boy version better!

She had so much fun giving these to each of her class!  What a cute first grader!

I like to LINK to these FABULOUS parties!  Join the fun!