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DIY: Make a Shrinky Dink Initial Necklace

Initial necklaces are very popular right now — in fact, Goodsmiths has a beautiful assortment to choose from. I discovered a way to add a little more charm to these guys with an old favorite: Shrinky Dink! It might just ring true for members of my age group, but Shrinky Dink is a pretty beloved memory.

This would be fun way to try an initial necklace and see if you like it, or you could add your own touch to a custom initial necklace that you’ve purchased. This is one of my favorites! Isn’t that cool? Love it.

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • A print out of whatever you want to add to your necklace (I tried both single initials and full names) in a cool font
  • Package of Shrinky Dink (I got the bright white kind, but there’s lots of choices). You can also cut out pieces of #6 plastic containers — it’s the same material!
  • Scissors
  • Necklace chain
  • Paper bag

First I printed out a bunch of different sized versions of what I was trying to shrink for my necklace — the general rule of thumb is that Shrinky Dink shrinks approximately 250 percent. Since math is not my strong suit, I just printed a couple different sizes and tried a couple out. The size I ended up liking the best was the one that I blew up 125 percent in Microsoft Word.

Next, cut very carefully around the printout of your word, and then trace the lines directly onto the Shrinky Dink. Another way is to trace over this piece of paper with carbon paper between this and the Shrinky Dink page.

Cut the name/initial out of the Shrinky Dink very carefully. This was the step that kept tripping me up. I must have torn the name “florie” 3 different times. So just to show you what the whole process looks like, I just focused on the “f”.

Use a blade to cut the inside loops out. Next, make sure you’ve cut all the pencil marks off of the white part, or you’ll see them in the final version. You can also color this, or just leave it white like I did.

Warm up your toaster or oven to 325 degrees and place your initial on a paper bag. Fold one corner of the paper bag up to make it easier to remove once the shrinking has commenced.  Place the paper bag on a cookie sheet and bake your initial for 1 to 3 minutes. Watch this closely — it will curl up at first, but then flatten out and shrink rapidly.  Don’t leave it in for too long or it will melt onto the bag. I ended up pulling mine out after about a minute.

Here’s the final necklace…

And here’s a full name. Not sure what I’ll do with this one yet — maybe use it for a necklace or add it to a tiny little canvas. But I wanted to show you it’s possible to do a full name too, with a little patience.

Have you tried Shrinky Dink crafts? Tell us in the comments below — or post a photo to our Facebook page!