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When I was a child I remember sticking a crisp/chip packet in the oven and shrinking it down to size. It was very cool but yet thinking about it now, it doesn’t seem like a wise idea sticking a plastic bag inside a hot oven. Im surprised our parents allowed us to lol! 😬Then along came shrinky dinks!

Shrinky Dinks are a great activity and give art an edge. These can be purchased at craft stores. We got a pack of 3 in our local discount store.


They can also be purchased online. Usually in packs of 10 or more.

Shrinky dinks can also come with all the extra accessories that you need if you don’t have them around the house.

This is a great pack!


For the shrinky dinks to keep their colour, permanent markers seem to work better. Acrylic paints can also be used which we have done before. But for this activity we used markers. A few other items you might like to have on hand are;

  • Scissors
  • A hole punch
  • Paper
  • Tape
  • Picture books
  • Keyring hooks

The paper is to use as a background when drawing your shrinky dinks. They are see through and it is often difficult to see what you are drawing if you are doing it freehand.

Picture books are there as a guide and the kids can also trace their favourite characters. You can pretty much draw anything when doing shrinky dinks.

Here are some Helpful Tips;

  • Try not to pick a picture that is too big. The larger you do, the less chance you have of it shrinking to a decent size and it can curl up at the edges too much.
  • Don’t go too small either. My kids have picked out small pictures and they go so tiny you can’t even see them. Draw pictures that range from 2-6 inches.
  • Using tape to keep your shrinky dink sheets still whilst drawing is a good tip that we learnt along the way. Kids can get frustrated when their work slides around.

Of course you don’t have to use tape, it just makes it easier. Especially for younger kids. My son tends to draw free hand, so just using the paper for the background whilst drawing is ideal for him.

My daughter enjoys tracing around pictures. You can draw your favourite characters from a book. Or you can use one of our FREE printable sheets to get some ideas for fun shrinky dinks. You can find these below! ⬇️⬇️


Baking your Shrinky Dinks

Once the kids have made their shrinky dinks, go ahead and cut them out. If you are using them to put on a keyring, now is the time to punch a hole into it!

The shrinky dinks don’t need very long in the oven. You are basically just melting them down to size and so long as you have the oven set at the correct temperature they will shrink in no time.

Set your oven to 335F-338F (this is around 170C)

The green shrinky dink in the picture above is the perfect example of too big. This one curled lots and didn’t come out right.

Lay all the shrinky dinks out on a baking tray so they are spaced out. Bake for 1-2 mins depending on how quickly they take shape.

On the shrinky dink packet it tells you to bake them for 10 seconds but in our experience, it definitely takes a little longer than 10 seconds!

Watch Them Curl!

It is really cool to watch them shrink. We always put the oven light on so that we can see them. You will see them curl up almost like a ball, but don’t stress! They will do this and then as they shrink they will open back up again. Thats when you know they are done.

When you take them out of the oven, be careful as they will be hot!

Using a spatula or a spoon gently push the shrinky dinks down before they set. This will just straighten them out a bit.

They only take couple minutes to cool down.

The shrinky dinks turn out so pretty when using lots of colour. We traced around some Easter egg colouring sheets and they turned out so cute. As you can see two of these have holes punched into them. These can be put on a necklace.


We love Shrinky Dinks. They are a good rainy day activity and can really bring out the creative side of kids and adults alike. 😉

Have lots of fun creating!

Here are some Shrinky Dink Ideas for you! Download FREE..

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