#recylcing

I am thrilled! These polystyrene plastics don't recycle well in my area due to their shapes and they are rather commonly found trash from takeouts. Plus I save money and don't have to buy more plastics!

What I used:

#6 clear plastic lid from takeout box

Sandpaper

Pencil and red color pencil

Scissors

Parchment paper

Pan with flat surface

Oven

What I did:

Clean the #6 plastic lid

Cut #6 plastic lid into desired shapes

Sand the sheet with sandpaper

Draw on sanded plastic sheet

Turn on your exhaust fan and open your windows

Put finished dinks on parchment paper in oven pan

Turn oven on at 320F

Put pan with dinks in oven

Watch your dinks

It will shrivel up, then flatten back down, this is when you can turn the oven off

Dinks have shrunk!

Notes:

The sanding is optional. I did it because I wanted to use pencils for my shrinky dinks and the original clear gloss surface won't work with pencils. The sanded marks and frostiness will stay after shrunken, but it leaves an interesting effect! If you want clear glossy dinks, you can skip the sanding and use oil-based markers instead.

They shrink fast! So definitely keep an eye on them. Mine shrunk to 1/4 of the original size. This may differ depending on different sheet thickness.

I drew on the plastic both on the back and the front. Whatever you draw on each side will become higher contrast after shrinking.

I tested for waterproofness and the shrunken drawing was able to go through a quick soapy rinse with no issue!

This would be great for jewelry like earrings and necklace charms.