Animal Shrinky Dinks in Summer Art Camp

This summer I taught a one week art workshop called Artsy Animals.  The camp had kids going in to grades 1-4 and it took place for 3 hours every day.  Now camp was much more laid back than regular art class, so we did not accomplish *as much* as 3 hours of school time, but I think the kids had a really good time.

We made Shrinky Dink necklaces!  Each student got one sheet of Shrinky Dinks Crystal Clear paper.  They could draw between 2-6 pictures on the Shrinky Dink paper, depending on how big they drew.  I’m sure most of you have heard of Shrinky Dinks before, but if you haven’t, they are super fun.  After drawing your picture on a transparency-like sheet of Shrinky Dink paper, they are baked and shrink into little hard plastic pieces.  Kids love them!

First start by sketching your design on a sheet of white paper the same size as your Shrinky Dink paper.  When you are satisfied with your design, transfer your drawing to the Shrink Dink sheet (it feels like a transparency).  Place your original sketch under the clear sheet and trace the design with a black Sharpie marker.  We used all sorts of Sharpies and paint markers to color our designs, mostly the Elmer’s Painters Opaque Paint Markers and Sharpie Water-Based Poster Paint Markers.  I would use the water-based, not the oil-based (I have not tested the oil based paint markers.)  Then, cut out your design and punch a hole in the top (if you want to make a necklace).  Next, follow the directions for cooking.  I cut a piece of brown craft paper to fit a baking pan.  Then, put your Shrinky Dinks spaced apart on the pan.  Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and when it is ready, bake the Shrinky Dinks for about 3 minutes.  Watch them through the oven.  They will start to curl up and shrink.  They will flatten themselves back out again when they are done.  Once in a while, if you picture is an odd shape or really long it will curl up and get stuck together.  We lost just a couple of ours and couldn’t get them apart, but most of them flattened back on their own.

Here is a picture of a panda bear before baking.  The kids looked at Zoobooks while drawing their animals.

I remembered Nic Hahn‘s fun lesson about Marty Cooper and we played with our transparencies a little bit before baking!  We put our pictures in unusual situations with other animals and took photos.

And here are a bunch of our Shrinky Dinks after baking.  Super fun!  Most of these were made into necklaces, but I did not snap photos of them because we were too busy beading and stringing.

Later that week, I got some of my own Shrinky Dink materials to make with my daughter.  She had a blast making necklaces for herself and her friends.  The butterfly was my example.  My daughter is really into Furbys right now, so these are three Furby Shrinky Dinks she made.