Shrink Art Ornament

These ornaments were made by tracing images from a book of iron-on transfers onto white (not transparent) Shrink Art plastic. I used some Shrink Art I had had for some years so it may not end up as thick or shrink as nicely as the newer versions.

I used approximately half a sheet for each of these ornaments, and traced on both sides of the plastic with a black Sharpie. Once the images were traced, I colored the figures on both sides using good quality colored pencils. (I tried coloring with colored Sharpies first, but I didn't like the results when I baked the plastic,so I decided to try again with the pencils.) The colors deepen and become permanent when the plastic bakes up. If you want the ornaments to be two-sided, you have to color on both sides because the colors won't show through once the plastic shrinks. 

There are newer kinds of shrink plastic now on the market that can be printed directly in an ink jet printer, so if you opt for that kind you'd be spared the tedious tracing/coloring process. I didn't buy new plastic because I wanted to use up my old stock first.

When the image is colored in on both sides, you should cut around it with scissors, leaving a narrow border around the outside of the colored areas. Once the image is cut out, punch a hole in the top for hanging, using a 1/4" punch. The hole, like the rest of the image, will shrink to a smaller size as the plastic bakes.

How much each will shrink depends on a number of factors, including the brand of plastic you're using, but you should expect a shrinkage of between 30% and 50%.

I think Sam may have distorted a bit in the baking process -- I'm not sure if there was a grain in the plastic, or if I baked him too quickly, or if it's just that my plastic is old. In any case, I seemed to have the best luck, at least with my plastic supply, by baking the images slowly at a fairly low temperature (around 225 degrees). I know that some brands -- such as Shrinky Dink --- recommend a quicker shrinking at about 325 degrees, but my store of plastic seemed to distort more if I set the temperature higher. (It's possible that the temperature is off a bit in the old toaster oven I use for crafting, so that could explain the difference.)  In any case, my images did shrink quite a bit -- these figures started out around 5" and ended up about 3" tall.

When the figures are baked and cooled, make small loop in the end of a piece of craft wire using a pair of round-nosed pliers. String some beads onto the wire and make a second loop for hanging, then join the beads to the figure using a jump ring. I liked the idea of adding a little holly to the beaded segment, so I made up some holly leaves from the small left-over plastic bits.