{"id":6543,"date":"2026-06-05T13:56:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T17:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/?p=6543"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T14:39:07","slug":"the-science-of-shrinky-dinks-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/the-science-of-shrinky-dinks-11\/","title":{"rendered":"The Science of Shrinky Dinks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"toc\" style=\"background: #f9f9f9;border: 1px solid #aaa;display: table;margin-bottom: 1em;padding: 1em;width: 350px;\">\n<p class=\"toctitle\" style=\"font-weight: 700;text-align: center;\">Content<\/p>\n<ul class=\"toc_list\">\n<li><a href=\"#toc-0\">Pre-cut shapes for younger kids<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#toc-1\">Step 4<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#toc-4\">Download the Back to School Shrinky Dinks traceable Templates<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>They take about 3 minutes to bake. If you\u2019re using a baking sheet\/cookie sheet, you might want to cover it with foil or parchment paper before baking. That way I didn\u2019t have to worry about using one of my own baking sheets. This worked so well because we used the lid for shrinky dinks and the pan for baking the shrinky dinks.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"toc-0\">Pre-cut shapes for younger kids<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>They barely shrunk, barely thickened, and several never uncurled.<\/li>\n<li>Personalize your pieces with vibrant colors and add a touch of sparkle with sticky gem strips.<\/li>\n<li>By offering a blank canvas, these kits inspired countless original creations, proving that sometimes the best art starts with a simple sheet of plastic.<\/li>\n<li>The shrink sheet shrinks to 20% of its original size, great for creating small durable embellishments.<\/li>\n<li>Once you\u2019ve mastered the basics, you can experiment with layers, textures, and even 3D shapes to take your crafting to the next level.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For printed designs, use graphic software or a photo editing app to resize your images. Keep this in mind when choosing your design\u2019s level of detail and size. Before you start, remember that your design will shrink to about 1\/3 of its original size and become 9 times thicker.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"toc-1\">Step 4<\/h3>\n<p>#6 plastic is the only sort that shrinks well, and even then its not perfect. If you\u2019re here in St. Louis, head over to Michaels and look for real Shrinky Dink plastic. The charms below are all made on #6 plastic and they turned out a little warped.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe you want to do another science project? Attach it to jewelry, make a luggage label, or even a guitar pick! The shrinky dinks are still cut-able, sand-able, drill-able, glue-able, and plenty more. I don\u2019t know what kind of shrinky dinks are available, if any, but I\u2019ll always be able to make some on my own\u2026 I guess my parents actually taught me something. We freehanded it on blank sheets of plastic, and copied the designs from coloring books.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, we found out that you can make your own shrinky dinks at home with #6 plastic! We had Care Bears, Smurfs, Cabbage Patch dolls, and this cool craft called Shrinky Dinks. Your email address will not be published. I happened to have a thin business card magnet that I didn\u2019t need. Make sure to not touch the shrinky dinks with your hand to flatten \u2013 they are very hot.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"toc-2\">Explore related products<\/h2>\n<p>Permanent Markers (I did a test on some shrinky dinks and dry-erase markers work pretty well, but regular markers don\u2019t work as well) 3. SO I wanted to share how I made my own in case you have #6 plastics hanging around\/feel bad about throwing them away. I happened to fall upon DIY shrinky dinks on social media, and well, now I\u2019m hooked. Get into <a href=\"https:\/\/shrinky-dink.com\/\">shrinky dinks<\/a> the spirit of science this Valentine&#8217;s Day with some adorable science valentines! Help your curious kid cut through the clutter and collect the facts with a simple and fun science foldable.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"toc-3\">Get the latest Science stories in your inbox.<\/h3>\n<p>Shrinky dinks can also be turned into jewelry, however, these school supplies were sized for keychains. Although Shrinky Dinks are primarily an arts and crafts item marketed for children, adult crafting buffs also use the sets for jewelry making and other projects. Prior to heating, the plastic sheets can be colored with felt-tip pens, acrylic paint, or colored pencils and cut into shapes. At checkout, you can add a custom message, a gift receipt for easy returns and have the item gift-wrapped If you\u2019re looking to get great results with your own Shrinky Dinks, choosing the best markers and coloring tools is key! The regular markers were the only ones that didn\u2019t \u201cbake\u201d into the plastic and sort of rubbed off when I was done making my shrinky dinks.<\/p>\n<p>They shrunk a little and thickened a little. The first batch, I didn\u2019t note whether it was #1 or #6. The three plastics I used looked and felt very similar before cooking, so my son expected them to behave in the same way, but they didn\u2019t! Cut into desired shapes, decorate with sharpies as desired. We\u2019ve just made one attempt so far, but I thought I\u2019d share my how-to results. The next day, the students in my small groups made necklaces from their cell cycle art with plastic jewelry making string that I picked up at the craft store.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"toc-5\">Homemade Shrinky Dinks Tips:<\/h3>\n<p>Our team independently selects products featured in our editorial content. This would be a fun way to do it and showcase it especially if you\u2019re in a book club! Hey Emma, are the edges of your book charms scratchy after baking? So glad you\u2019ve shared it! Punched a hole, added a ribbon to use it as an ornament. So it\u2019s 20% of the original size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Content Pre-cut shapes for younger kids Step 4 Download the  [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shrinky-dink-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6544,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6543\/revisions\/6544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nejmadsales.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}