My kids have been nagging me to get some shrinky-dinks for ages. But that stuff is not easy to find here, and it’s not cheap either! I’d seen a tutorial on pinterst (of course) for using recycled plastic packaging in the same way, but we never seemed to buy anything packed in plastic that had the right number on it. But I had a vague memory of my Mum melting PET soft drink bottles when I was a kid, and in the interest of experimenting, and celebrating the last day of the school holidays, we decided to have a go.
Melted Bottle Jewelery
You’ll Need…
Plastic PET bottles or any kind of PET plastic.
Scissors
Permanent markers
Hole punch
Oven tray covered in foil
A moderately hot oven
String
You’ll Do…
Cut up the plastic bottles into medium sized pieces of various shapes. This can be a little tricky so you might want to pre-cut the bottles and using a craft knife to make the first cut is also helpful, unless you slice open your finger with it (ask me how I know!). Careful of sharp corners on your cut up plastic too, you might want to round them off a little.
Then go to town drawing and colouring on the bits of plastic. We found drawing on the inside of the bottles and filling the pieces with LOTS of colour worked better.
Once you are done colouring, punch holes all around the edge of your piece of plastic. The more holes you punch the more likely you are of getting one in a decent spot to make your necklace later on.
Then pop your plastic pieces on the foil covered tray, making sure there is a little room between each one, and put them in the oven.
It won’t take long for the pieces of plastic to start to curl up and shrink a little. Once they have melted to your satisfaction (it only takes a minute or two, any longer and they will begin to smoke and burn) take them out of the oven and allow them to cool. Put on your exhaust fan or pop them outside if you like as there will be a slight plasticey smell as they cool
It was really interesting to see how the differently thickness and shapes of the plastic melted and shrank differently. The bottoms of the bottles just shrunk down a little, and the thicker parts at the neck of the bottle didn’t curl as much as the thinner sides.
We each selected a favourite piece that had a hole in an appropriate spot and threaded it on some string for a necklace.
The necklaces soon became ‘rainbow viewer’ necklaces and ‘magic whistle’ necklaces. Morgan didn’t take his off until this morning when he put on his school uniform for the first time. He carefully put his magic whistle around my neck and said ‘keep it safe till I get home’…. so now even I have a melted bottle necklace and it is the most precious piece of jewelery I own.
You’ll be thinking of Morgan all day :)
Kate this is a stunning craft activity! So artistic, so much fun and you’re recycling too. I’m sooo going to do this idea. Pinning now!
How did Morgan go?
We used to do this when we were little too. It’s crazy fun, isn’t it, watching the roll and shrink.
What a great idea! I too looked at shrinky-dink plastic on-line (LOVED making them as a kid). But your idea of recycling is so much better. ?
I am not sure that this is very safe. Isn’t PET plastics toxic which is the reason we are unable to recycle them?
Perhaps you are thinking about something different? PET bottles here in Australia have a number 1 on them and are used for lots of things.
Also PET bottles are very recyclable ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling) and they are also considered safe to hold and store both drinks and food.
I am sure that breathing in the fumes of any melted plastic is not healthy, but we did this under a exhaust fan and allowed the melted plastic to cool completely (and therefore stop giving off fumes) before we used it.
These are so bright and colourful, they turned out great.
What an amazing idea! Would love to do it wit my 4 year old but our kitchen window doesn’t open. Will have to wait!
Great idea! And I love your picture of the children all watching the oven with great anticipation and curiosity!! I will have to try this!
When my daughter was little she loved the shrinkable stuff especially ones with fairies it was cheap to buy in the Uk, do love this idea I know Mr 7 will be keen.
These turned out fantastic! What a fab idea :-)
These are so bright and colourful Kate…you brought back some memories for me with this post! love the whistle necklace idea too! Thanks so much for sharing!
I’ve been meaning to try out shrinky dinks – these look awesome! Pinned it :)
Love your twist on these! I had such fun making shrinky dinks as a kid – all those chip packets in miniature were so cute :-) Will have to keep my eye on the plastic in the house!
Very, very cool!
I remember melting plastic in the oven when I was a kid. So much fun.
Hi, Just wanted to let you know I loved this idea SO much that I am doing it with all three of my kids classrooms for Valentine’s Day next week. About 80 kids! It saved me a ton of money on crafts that would not have been original and this gives them all a chance to create their own special item. Now to find enough plastic LOL
Thank you!
What temperature and about how long did you do it? Did you only use clear plastic?
We only used clear PET plastic bottles (it has a 1 in the recycling triangle here in Australia). We used a moderately hot oven about 180-200 degrees C, and it only took a minute or two for the think bits of plastic to curl and shrink… a little longer for the thicker parts of the bottles. Hope that helps!
Kate you are a legend for thinking this one up! As a kid in primary school I had a pair of twistie packs I used to hang on my sleepers. Now I have a very creative 3yr old, we are going to do this for everyones christmas presents! Thanks so much for the inspiration!