shrink plastic ring tutorial
Thank you to everyone who requested a shrinkydinks ring tutorial! This tutorial is an experimental method, not an exact science – you should have fun playing with it…
UPDATE: Since posting this very popular tutorial in 2008, I’ve answered every question imaginable in the comments of this post. If you have questions, you’re welcome to trawl back through the hundreds of comments to find my answers, or, to make things easier, I’ve compiled a 3-page shrinky rings FAQ, which is available exclusively when you donate $2 or more towards my tutorial (this also entitles you to further help from me by email, should you need it). Please see the end of this post for more details about this policy 🙂
Please note: if you’ve come here via the lovely bird ‘ring’ picture on Pinterest, read this post to answer your questions.
This tutorial is Donationware – the instructions are available for free, but if you like it please consider sending me a donation to show your appreciation:
Send me a donation and receive the easy-to-print PDF version of the tutorial as a thank you! The PDF also includes a bonus 3-page FAQ compiled from all the tips I’ve shared in the comments since creating this tutorial.
Donations of any size are much appreciated. Just add the amount you wish to donate, and, once you have checked out and paid, your PDF will instantly be available to download from your PlanetJune account.
The complete instructions are available below, regardless of whether or not you choose to pay for them 🙂
This is a PlanetJune original tutorial. Please do not share or reproduce this tutorial; instead post a link to www.planetjune.com/shrinkydinks
I’ll answer some questions from the comments on my previous shrinky rings post before I get started, and add more hints and tips throughout the tutorial.
Shrink plastic, for the uninitiated, was originally marketed as a toy for kids. It starts life thin and flexible. You draw on it and then bake it in the oven, and it shrinks to become about 1/3 of the starting size, but 9 times as thick. This thickness makes it strong and hard. It will not bend after baking, so if you try to pull your ring open, or stand on it, it may snap, but it is strong enough to withstand regular use as a ring.
The last step (bending the ring into shape) is the most difficult, so I highly recommend that 1) you read through all the instructions before starting, and 2) practice on a blank piece of shrink plastic so you can get a feel for it and test your size and bending technique before putting too much effort into your design!
Full tutorial instructions are after the jump…
1. Find your shrink plastic
I use Shrinky Dinks Frosted Ruff N’ Ready, which accepts rubber stamped images beautifully. Any transparent shrink plastic will work. If you use the coloured opaque shrink plastic, you would have to decorate the outside of your ring instead of the inside. You could also use the inkjet printable type of shrink plastic.
An alternative source for shrinkable plastic is #6 plastic, commonly used in food packaging. Look for the ‘6’ recycling symbol to make sure you’re using the right type! You’ll have to sand one side before use, as the plastic needs a rough (not shiny) surface so the ink won’t smudge and rub off.
Note: If you are looking for sources, search for “shrink plastic” (generic term) not “shrinkydinks” (brand name) and you may have more luck. For example, if you’re in the UK, googling ‘Shrink Plastic UK’ (without the quotes) will give you lots of online stores that sell it. You’re looking for large sheets of it, not pre-cut shapes.
2. Measure and cut to size
Note: Different brand of shrink plastic may shrink by different amounts, so you might want to try baking a plain test piece to make sure you’ve got the size right before spending time on decoration.
Measure: The best method to find the right length for your strip of plastic is by trial and error.
- A: Simple Method: Use my measurements for your first attempt, then modify the length if they turn out too small or big! My rings fit small ladies’ fingers, and are 6mm (1/4″) tall.
My starting dimensions were 14.2 x 1.6cm (5 5/8 x 5/8″). - B: Attempt to Calculate Size: If you know your ring size, you could calculate the desired circumference of your ring with a ring size converter. (The circumference would be equal to the length of your strip of plastic after shrinking.) However, I found that, although Shrinkydinks is supposed to shrink by ~3 times, my strips needed to be ~10% longer than the length I calculated in this way.
This isn’t an exact science. I recommend you just use your best guess to make a test ring; you’ll soon find out if your strip should have been longer or shorter!
Cut to Size: To cut the plastic, I like to use a guillotine (paper cutter) to get straight lines, but it’s probably not good for the cutter blade (I use an old cutter blade). You could also use an xacto knife and metal ruler, or just cut the plastic with scissors.
The corners can be very sharp, so I like to round them off slightly with scissors before baking (don’t worry if you forget this step; you can file or sand them down after baking).
3. Decorate shrink plastic
Follow the decorating instructions that come with your shrink plastic. Here are some ideas:
- Rubber stamps + alcohol-based permanent inks (be warned: other types of stamp ink will smudge)
- Fine-point permanent marker (e.g. Sharpie) to draw or trace your designs
- Coloured pencils (use in combination with the above to add colour)
- Print designs directly onto your plastic (inkjet shrink plastic ONLY)
If you’re using the frosted type, remember to decorate the rough (frosted) side. For other types, consult your instructions.
I used peg stamps to decorate my first rings. The designs are only 1cm tall so fit my rings perfectly. Below I have also tried some other rubber stamps:
Don’t forget to let your ink dry before adding any coloured pencil embellishments, and remember that colours will become more saturated and vibrant after baking, so less is more in this case.
4. Find a suitable form to bend plastic around
Here’s a useful tip to find an object of the right size to create your ring: take an existing ring, and try to slip it over various thin cylindrical household objects, e.g. marker pen barrel, wooden spoon handle, lip balm tube. You are looking for an object that is a tight fit inside your ring. If you don’t have anything suitable, you could buy a short length of wooden dowel of the right diameter. Your object will come into contact with hot plastic, so don’t use any treasured possessions for this step.
5. Shrink your plastic
This is the fun part!
Preheat a toaster oven or conventional oven to the temperature specified on your packaging. Make sure you are in a well-ventilated area so any fumes don’t build up.
Note: Please read the instructions below all the way to the end before baking your ring – the shaping happens very quickly after baking so you need to be ready…
Place your strip (decorated side up) on a piece of brown paper on an oven tray, and put it in the oven. Keep watching… this is where the magic happens. Your strip will begin to curl up and wiggle about as some parts heat more quickly than others and so begin to shrink more quickly. Don’t worry if it looks like it’s stuck together – in my experience it always flattens out as it continues to shrink. When it has finished shrinking, leave it in the oven for another 30 seconds to heat through evenly.
Here’s an animation of the shrinking process:
6. Shape your ring
When your strip comes out of the oven, you’ll have to work quickly – you only have about 10 seconds before it has cooled and becomes rigid. Disclaimer: to protect your hands from the hot plastic, you should probably wear a thin glove (for more control) or an oven mitt (for better protection against the heat) but I don’t bother – it is very hot, but the plastic doesn’t stay hot for long enough to burn my skin.
Remove the brown paper from the oven. Wait for about 2 seconds (so it’s not too hot to touch), then carefully wrap the strip around your forming tool, with your decorated side facing in towards the tool. Hold it in place for a few seconds until it becomes cool and rigid.
I’m not going to lie, this step is tricky. You really do have to work quickly, and not make any mistakes, otherwise you won’t have time to wrap the entire strip around your object before it cools. But don’t lose hope! There is a magic fix for a badly-formed ring like the one below…
Pop your misshapen ring back into the oven on the brown paper, balancing it upright on its curved surface so the join is at the top (as in the picture above). After a minute or so, the plastic will relax back out of its shape, and revert back into a flat strip… I told you this stuff was magic! Let it heat through for about 20-30 seconds, then try to form the ring around your tool again.
Left: unsanded edges; Right: sanded edges
That’s it! You can sand down the edges to give a smoother finish, but this may partially obscure your design. You could also paint the edges after forming for a different effect. For more durability of your design, use a clear coat to carefully varnish the inside of the ring (one coat should be enough).
You can make matching earrings, charm bracelets or necklace pendants – just punch holes for the jewellery findings before shrinking the plastic, and remember that the holes will also shrink, so don’t worry that they’ll be too large.
Enjoy your new jewellery!
Please note: if you’ve donated for this tutorial and read the included 3-page FAQ, and still have problems or questions relating to the instructions in my tutorial, you’re very welcome to email me for further help; please include your order number in your email.
I do not have time to respond to any other questions – if you look back through my many past answers to questions left in the comments here, you’ll probably find the answer anyway, or you can just donate $2 or more and receive the PDF version of this tutorial together with a 3-page FAQ which should answer any remaining questions 🙂
Happy shrinky ring making!
Please leave me a comment if you enjoyed this tutorial, and consider leaving me a donation. Thanks!
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angie p said
AWESOME ! thanks for the hard work.. i have been looking for a cute toe ring and this would be GREAT !!
Molly Jane said
Hey, this is great! I have all my shrinky dink stuff from when I was younger and just grabbed that!! I made myself a mustache ring, which I am baking in the morning. Can’t wait, and thanks so much for the tutorial!!
Katie said
If using the #6 plastic, to what temperature do you heat the oven?
June said
Katie, as it’s the same material, it should shrink at the same temperature, i.e. around 325F (or about 165C).
Mando said
Awesome! i’ve made earrings, charms, etc. But this is great!!! 🙂 Thanks so much!
Olivia said
I have a question.. Have you ever tried making a ring with words stamped on it? I’d like to try that (like using a word that’s said in a book or TV series often) but I’m just wondering if you ever have.
Thanks, Olivia
June said
Olivia, as you print on the back of the ring, rubber-stamped letters would end up reversed (a mirror-image). Please see my previous suggestions for making a ring with text here 🙂
Sharon said
They also make a specific stamp for mirror images. It is just a flat piece of stamp rubber on wood that you stamp your original stamp onto, then stamp the new, reversed image onto your work. HOpe this helps for people looking to stamp words onto their rings! 🙂
June said
Intriguing! Thanks for sharing that info, Sharon 🙂
Melanie said
I remember using SOLO brand plastic cups to make “buckles” a LONG time ago. I don’t know the specifics of how we did it, I was in elementary school so mom probably did most of the work…
We bought SOLO cups, flipped them upside down, cut two semi circles out of the very bottom-leaving a diagonal line of cup through the bottom part- then put them on a cookie sheet and melted. They flattened out to have two holes with a bar in the middle like a buckle. No sanding, no bending, just two simple cuts and now those cups come in so many colors, someone today could use this idea and run with it, I’m sure! 🙂
Ivy said
Donation? Really?
June said
If you choose to recognise the hours I put into my tutorials and thank me for that with a dollar, I very much appreciate it, and you get a nicely formatted printable PDF in return. If not, well, as I say, it’s completely optional!
Jenny Fincham said
These are amazing, I have made a couple now and love them!
One question? What do you sand yours with? I tried sand paper and it doesn’t work so well! Did you use a little machine?
You are very talented.
June said
Hmm… thinking back… I sanded gently by hand. If it didn’t work for you, you may be using a sandpaper with too coarse a grit, which would leave scratches – is that what happened when you tried? I have 320 grit and 600 grit that I use to get a very smooth finish for my craft projects.
Ashley said
Hi, I was just wondering, about how many rings come out of one sheet?
June said
Ashley, a sheet is 8 x 10 inches, and my rings were about 5.6 x 0.63 in. So I’d get about 15 out of one sheet, plus maybe 3 more if I used the offcut edge piece too (but as the plastic may shrink by a slightly different amount in each direction, you’d have to do a separate test run for size if you cut a tall narrow piece vs a short wide piece). Obviously it also depends on the size of rings you want to make and which brand of shrink plastic you use!
Susan said
Hello
What can be done with recycled 4 plastic
that is all I can seem to find around here- I am having a problem finding recycled 6-
I tried the shrinky donk idea with the 4 it did not shrink- but it did turn white
and it did harden a bit but thats all
so what can be done with recycled 4 if anything at all.
I can not seem to find recycled 6 plastic
June said
You can’t shrink other types of plastic; only #6. The best thing to do with your #4 is to recycle it! And then maybe buy yourself a pack of Shrinkydinks 😉
Jeremiah said
In testing, the final piece is generally 40% smaller than the unshrunk film.
Kay said
We tried these using some shrinky dink plastic from the 70’s. The plastic shrunk just as you described, but it only took about 10-s. We waited a bit longer before taking the first batch out, but it was too brittle to bend. We took the second batch out as soon as it had flattened out and wrapped them around a lipstick. These were too brittle and broke also. Do you think it is because the plastic is too old?
June said
Hmmm, I don’t know… It may be age degradation, or the plastic formula may have been slightly different in the classic stuff – when mine went wrong, they just solidified too quickly; they didn’t ever break, so it sounds like yours may be too brittle. Things you could try before you give up on it:
If none of those work, I’d save the classic shrinky dinks for flat projects and maybe invest in a new pack!
Heather B said
These are awesome. Great job on the instructions. It was good to know I could reheat and re-bend. I think I redid the first one 4 times. It looks great! My shrinky dink stuff did not shrink to 1/3, so I did have to recalculate the length I started with, but it all worked out. I can’t wait till naptime tomorrow to make another one.
Charley said
Awesome I can’t wait to make shrinkydinks!!
esther said
This is so cool! I’m thinking about making these and selling them for our charity project. (:
michelle said
i have had shrink plastic sitting in my craft room for years. never dreamed of making rings from it! amazing!
norma said
great tut. i have shrink plastic that can be shrunk with my embossing gun and am going to try these with my granddaughters!
Savitha S.M said
this is creative and amazing
Chrissi said
Hi! I love your rings! When I tried to make these, the rings curl onto themselves and get stuck. I have tried 4 times, and each time I let it do its shrinky thing, but they still stay stuck! Any suggestions?
June said
Chrissi, I haven’t experienced this personally, but here are a few things you could try:
Michele said
Take vellum or parchment paper and place over top of the shrink film, it will keep it from bending and sticking to itself.
June said
That’s a great tip! Thanks, Michele.
Jessica said
Great tutorial! I love shrinky dinks! I’ll be adding this to my 12 days of Christmas blog series. Thanks!
Misse said
how about fingerprints of your children? or fingerprints of grand parents for children’s rings?
COLLEEN said
GREAT IDEA! ! ! !
Susan said
What kind of clear sealant do you use? Are you talking about polyurithane? Thanks for clearing this up for me!
Stephanike said
I made these and have come across a problem with the ink rubbing off onto my finger. Have you had this problem? If so, how do you combat it?
June said
Stephanike, please see my previous answer to this question, here 🙂
Laurie said
You just put one or two coats of clear sealant. I’ve even used clear nail polish, but you have to reapply it every so often.
pixelatedmushroom said
yay awesome tute! I want to try it 🙂
sheril mathews said
Well blow my hair back with a flute!!! Those are amazing!!!! Have you made bangles? How long would the shrink plastic have to be? And can you join them while they are hot?
I am SOOOO impressed with your tutorial too.
Thank you!!
Sheril
June said
Sheril, see my answer about making bangles here.
And no, you can’t join them while they are hot: Shrinkydinks will fuse together, but only in the oven at 450F for 15-30 mins, which would be far too hot to touch in order to shape it! You can only fuse flat pieces of Shrinkydinks (by placing them into the oven on top of each other so they will fuse). You’d have to make a bangle with a gap, in the same way as my rings have a gap.
tmv said
Excuse me, is this your ring? I love the pattern, and was trying to figure out who made it so I could see if I could buy one …
pinterest.com/pin/466204081/
June said
tmv, no, it’s not my ring – it’s actually a resin bangle, not a shrinky ring at all! I’ve just written a blog post to explain this confusion, and there’s a link in the post to the artist who makes the bangles, in case you’d like one 🙂
www.planetjune.com/blog/how-to-track-down-creditless-photo-sources/
tmv said
You rock. Thank you for the explanation and the link!
Mellissa said
Peggy, Shrinky Dink plastic is #6 plastic, which a lot of food containers are made of!
Thanks for this tutorial! I super heart Shrinky Dink stuff!
D'Ann said
This is so awesome! I can’t wait to try this!!
Kristie said
Wow! What an excellent idea! I can’t wait to try this!
Don Draper said
wow these are really lovely I am going to make these for my nearest and dearest for Christmas.
thanks for sharing!
Lynn said
You should sell these on etsy.com!!! (especially for those of us who don’t have the patience or talent to do this!)
J said
This is a great idea. I’d love to be able to have one, but I just know I’d burn the crap out of myself trying.
Peggy said
My mother made original shrink plastic in the “70’s”, I recall she used a plastic wrap of some sort. Do you have information on that?
Thank You,
Peggy
sherri said
I’m not sure of any plastic wrap, but if you check your to go containers for a recycle #6, those peices can be used! You’ll have to sand it a bit, but it shrinks down just the same!
June said
Peggy, you can shrink clear #6 plastic food containers, but I’ve never heard of shrinking plastic wrap – I have a feeling it might be too thin to give good results. Maybe your mother used #6 plastic containers and that’s what you’re thinking of?
Dustin said
I have heard about using laminated scraps from school…but I usually use Graphix Shrink film…comes in all kinds of finishes and color. My kids are going to love making rings…or maybe bracelets. Thanks for the lesson.
Tammy said
We always used clear deli lids –
Erin said
This is so cool. I hope to give it a try soon!
Sarah said
I can’t figure how to mesure and cut. I am a size 9, and I can’t figure how to mesure… because it will shrink. Please help!
I love shrinky dinks and this looks like so much fun!
June said
Sarah, I answered your question in an earlier comment – to save me retyping it, please check my response here 🙂
Braedon said
Thank You!!! Still getting the shaping it part down but these are awesome!
lost all my cool wrings and I tried making wire rings ( did not work).
Thank You!
Lydia D. said
Thank you so much for posting all these great ideas!!
Susan said
Thank you for the great project idea and tutorial! My 1st -4th grade Sunday School class LOVES Shrinky Dink Plastic projects. I can always find something the boys will like to make. Our best success is with the frosted ruff n’ ready. We use rubber stamps with the StazOn solvent ink, permanent sharpies for outlines/names and colored pencils. I use a heat gun to shrink because they love watching them shrink. Be sure to have a bamboo skewer ready to flip them over and a wooden block to flatten, if necessary. I do the shrinking on a (dedicated) non-stick metal cookie sheet.
I have had luck using a black & white – TONER ONLY copier with the ruff n’ ready. While the image will not be perfect-once shrunk, looks great.
If you forget to punch the hole before shrinking, a dremel is your best friend.
Linda said
Hi June,
There was an article in today’s paper from Fayetteville, NC about your shrinky dink rings. I had no idea this stuff was still out there. I am a crafter and always looking for new things to do with my 2 granddaughters.
This I am going to look for when I go to my craft store. Thanks so much for sharing. By the way, I never get my crochet animals to look as good as yours do. Does practice make perfect you think??
Thanks,
Linda in NC
June said
Linda, practice definitely helps, and there are also several techniques you can use to improve the appearance of your crocheted animals. Take a look at my tutorials at www.planetjune.com/help and see if they make a difference!
Janet Trieschman said
great tutorial. I linked to it from my blog.
frizzy said
hey june I know every one is saying this but you truly have a great tutorial!!!!
i just have one problam I truly am not good at math and I dont get how to find my size!!:(
PLEASE HELP
June said
Here’s something you can try that involves NO math! Cut a strip that’s 15cm (or 6″) long. Use a marker to draw a little line every cm (or 1/4″) with a ruler, so it looks like a little ruler (you don’t need to number the marks though). Shrink the strip and wrap it around your forming tool (use the method in my tutorial to find the right size of tool using an existing ring). Now you can use your marks to find out how much too short (or long) it is:
– If it’s too short, guess how many of the spaces between your marks would fill the gap then make your next strip that many cm (or 1/4″s) longer.
– If it’s too long, count how many marks you’d need to cut off to make it the right length then make your next strip that many cm (or 1/4″s) shorter.
Daily Craft said
Great project! I just wanted to let you know that we featured this project on our Facebook page with over 17,000 fans. We
Cocktail machines said
I just ran across some shrinky dink paper in an old craft drawer. I’ll have to let the grandkids try this out. Looks like fun.
Lynda Allred said
Great tutorial! Very precise and helpful! So I used to do something similar when I was a young girl (like 40 years ago) we used liver lids! The local grocers would sell liver (yuk) in these little plastic containers with lids on them. BUT they were nice enough to let us buy just the lids for a small price. It worked similarly …I am glad to know that you can purchase the sheets of plastic now. I would like to do this with my grand kids. Are the sheets available at regular craft stores? JoAnns etc..? Or where have you purchased them?
Thanks again,
Lynda
June said
Yes, most craft stores sell the sheets now, usually near the scrapbooking supplies 🙂
GinaC said
I am not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but plastic clam shell food packaging works just as well as expensive shrink plastic, and it puts a piece of trash to good use!
This is the type of packaging I am talking about:
www.brenmarco.com/userdocs/ItemImages/260115lrg.jpg
June said
That’s right! Just make sure that it’s #6 plastic – I just checked and here in South Africa clamshell packaging is made from #1 (the same as soft drink bottles)! So do check the plastic type (the number in the triangle of arrows) on the package before you try to shrink it and check it says #6.
pilaifarmer said
this is a great project, thank you for the tutorial. FYI…S&S worldwide has shrink plastic in other colors, red, green purple. etc…i am going to try this in the coloerd shrink plastic i ordered. again thanks
MamaMay said
I featured you!
allawesomelinks.blogspot.com/2011/07/shrinky-dink-rings.html
Ariiaa said
Oh …i just love these cute rings…its so easy to make… i’ll try it soon… thank you for sharing 🙂
Dianne Faw said
Hi, June – this is really a wonderful tutorial! I used it for my Day 5 Creation of 30 Days of Creativity and put up a link in my blog. Thank you! diannefaw.wordpress.com/2011/06/05/day-5-shrinky-dink-rings/
Mei said
These are awesome. I recently made some of these and the tips you gave made the process much, much easier. Thanks for being so generous with your ideas!
meiphemera.blogspot.com/2011/05/fiction-vs-non-fiction.html
(I hope that comes up as a link to the pictures…also, if this is spammy, please delete it; I don’t mean it to be spam.)
June said
Not spammy! Your rings are lovely; I’m glad my tutorial helped you 🙂
Teresa G said
Thank you this is awesome.