Thursday, February 4, 2010

Did you ever make shrinky dinks as a kid? I loved making them! I probably got to one time, but it was memorable.

Last year I came across this tutorial for "shrink plastic" that uses recycled 6 clear plastic with the same results. Here's the link: http://www.poopscape.com/projects/shrinkydink/shrink.htm

She had the best luck with clear clamshell berry baskets so I looked without success for a long time. Then while at my sister's house last summer I looked hopelessly "one last time" at a stack of clamshell baskets that she had just acquired with her seasonal strawberry buying. I found several! I was so excited I quit looking and gathered them all up. When I got them home I sorted through them and found that about half of them were the required "6" and half were the more commonly found "1". So I sorted them into two stacks intending to recycle the one stack if I could and use the other when I had time. Remember this fall when I did that major clean out? I cleaned out what I thought was the stack of "ones". I discovered yesterday that I had cleared out the treasured "6" stack. I had one large blueberry clamshell box. I don't think this is going to help me become less of a packrat. Here are some pictures from what we did:



The "before" picture. These were colored with a permanent pink marker (Sharpie).

They are also the "holed" edges of the clamshell


























Curling in the oven


















the very curled piece was a curled box corner




The Result


















"They're Smaller than your kitchen sink!" Boyo exclaimed.









Yes, in a galactic way they are smaller than my kitchen sink.
















The heart was colored by the tiny girl with colored pencil.

It was so much fun I can't wait to find more plastic. One Day!

PS we didn't have any that needed to be flattened as she suggested.

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