You may have played with Shrinky Dink Film as a child. Did you know that it is fun to use in scrapbooking also? You can find the shrinking plastic inexpensively in scrapbooking stores and also in general craft stores. At roughly $1.50 per sheet, the cost is much lower than if you were purchasing charms to use for embellishing. You can get up to forty little plastic charms out of one sheet. You can even purchase the film to put through your home printer. Print your design, cut it out and bake!

Here is how I made the little flower charms to embellish my "You Go Girl" tag.

There are many ways to achieve the shape you desire. You can trace a shape, draw it free-hand, put some Shrinky Dink Film through a die-cut machine or use a paper punch. I chose to use a paper punch in the shape of a flower.



Arrange your flowers on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about five minutes.

I watched the Shrinky Dink Film through the oven door to see just how the process worked. At first they merely shrink a little. Then the flowers curled up a LOT and the shapes appeared as tulips on the pan. I thought for sure they weren't going to turn out. In just another minute or so they flattened out nicely.

Here is the size comparison after shrinking.



You may put a colorant on your Shrinky Dink Film before or after baking. I chose to wait until they were shrunk. It was very easy to dab them on an ink pad and then wipe off the excess ink. This gave just a faint pastel pink to the flowers.



As you can see, the Shrinky Dinks are a fun and easy way to embellish your layouts and page elements.

The embellished tag on a layout.

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