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• • • • •
Time
30 mins

Day 6 - Shrink Plastic Ornaments
This is a fun and easy craft that the whole family can make using common childhood materials!

Posted by Stephanie H. from U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, United States • Published See Stephanie H.'s 6 projects »
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  • Step 1

    Preheat Your Oven

    Preheat your oven according to the directions on your shrink plastic.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 2
    Step 2

    Choose Your Design

    Pick your design for your ornament from your Christmas coloring book pages. *As long as you are not selling your ornaments you can avoid copyright infringement. If you want to sell them you will need to pay for the rights to your images or create your own.

    Place a sheet of your shrink plastic, rough side up, over your selected image and paper clip at top and bottom to prevent sliding. *You can also trace your image on the smooth side with a black Sharpie if you prefer and then add color on the rough side, but since I had my children doing this I chose to avoid anything with the word PERMANENT.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 3
    Step 3

    Trace Your Image

    Use your black pencil to trace your image, being careful not to smudge with your hand. The best way to avoid smudging is to rotate your picture as you trace. I traced Abbie's image since she is only four, but the older two were perfectly capable of tracing their own.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 4
    Step 4

    Elijah tracing his image.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 5
    Step 5

    Hannah carefully following the lines.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 6
    Step 6

    Add Color

    Now come the fun part, adding the color! Use colored pencils to fill in the areas of your design. Remember to color on the rough side.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 7
    Step 7

    Elijah did a great job with his too.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 8
    Step 8

    The toy chest design is the one I did.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 9
    Step 9

    Trim Your Plastic

    Once your designs are all colored in, trim your plastic with scissors. Leave about a quarter to an eighth of an inch space around your design when cutting because the baking process will be more successful with less intricately trimmed pieces.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 10
    Step 10

    Punch Your Holes

    Use your regular hole punch to punch a hole at the top of your ornament for your wire hanger. Remember that the hole will shrink too.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 11
    Step 11

    Bake

    Use your brown craft paper or brown paper bags to line your cookie sheet. Place your designs on cookie sheet color side up making sure they do not overlap each other or they might fuse while baking. I baked two at a time.

    Bake according to package directions. If it doesn't come out right the first time, don't worry you can repeat the baking process until it comes out right.

    As soon as you take them out of the oven, carefully lift your brown paper with the ornaments on top and quickly move it to a flat surface. Press down your plastic with a flat object, I used the coloring book, for about 15 seconds. You have only 10-20 second before your plastic hardens! If your plastic hardens before it can be flattened just bake it again to re-soften.

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 12
    Step 12

    Make Your Hangers

    While your ornaments are cooling, make your ornament hangers. I used some left over red craft wire to make mine.

    Cut about a 3 inch piece of wire. Insert one end of it through the hole at the top of your ornament. Bring the end up over the top of the ornament and wrap it around the remaining wire. Use your needle nose pliers to create a bend at the top of the wire for the hook part. Repeat for all ornaments and voila!

  • How to make a charms. Shrink Plastic Ornaments - Step 13
    Step 13

    Hang and Enjoy!

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