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Flickrshrink plastic ring tutorial
Thank you to everyone who requested a shrinkydinks ring tutorial! I hope this will answer all your questions. Please leave me a comment if you have any questions etc, or link to pictures of your own rings!
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 my tips that I’ve made 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 http://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.
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, for you UK people, 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.
If you know your ring size, you can use a ring size converter to calculate the desired circumference of your ring. The circumference in this case will be equal to the length of your strip of plastic (after shrinking). Shrinkydinks shrinks by approx 3 times, but I found I had to allow an extra 10% in the length measurement to compensate for the curvature in the finished ring. For my rings (finished size approximately US 6, UK J, and 6mm tall) my starting dimensions are 14.2 x 1.6cm.
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.
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 will 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 hot, but the plastic doesn’t stay hot for long enough to burn 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 will be too large.
Enjoy your new jewellery!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Please leave me a comment if you did, and consider leaving me a donation. Thanks!
Hi, I'm 
liz said
You can also shrink using an embossing gun. I have never tried something so large but i have made pendants before using just the gun.
Rebecca said
What “clear coat” are you referring to?
maggie said
any coat of clear substance should be good. they sell clear spay paint, and since i am a crafter, i use that, but if this is all your using it for, you might want to find a cheaper alternative. for a thicker glossier coat, try clear nail polish, but test it on a scrap first to make sure the chemicals don’t interact and smudge the ink.
Sarah said
How do I convert my ring size into the length of plastic? I know how to use shrinky dinks and cut plastic, all of that is basic. How do you know how long to make the plastic to make a ring size? You don’t list any of the conversions. What does an “extra 10%” even mean? These are nonsense terms.
June said
Sarah, I’m sorry to hear you’re so confused. Percentages are basic mathematical terms, not nonsense. An extra 10% means you take your length measurement and add 10% to it (so type the length number into your calculator and multiply it by 1.1).
As I said in the tutorial, “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.” That’s the reason why I don’t list conversions (although I did give you the sizes I used as a starting point): your plastic may not shrink by the same amount as mine, and it may also shrink by a different amount length- and width-wise, so you need to figure out the size you need for your specific shrink plastic. If your package of shrink plastic doesn’t give an exact shrinkage rate, you can work it out by measuring a piece, shrinking it, and measuring it again, then you’ll know what percentage your plastic will shrink by and you calculate how long your starting piece needs to be to give you the desired finished ring size.
If this doesn’t make sense, you’ll need to either learn some basic maths (percentages and ratios), or just do a trial and error method: you can get about 17 rings from one sheet of Shrinkydinks, so just try making a plain one and see how large it is, then make your next one longer or shorter if it was too large or small respectively.
Slummy to Yummy Mummy said
Your instructions are very clear and now I’m itching to try it! Thanks.
lisa said
you need to learn math, Sarah!
Deb Kilimnik said
Sarah,
June is being very helpful and you were rude to her. I think you owe her an apology.
Deb
Susan said
Hi and thank you for your tutorial!! I can’t wait to give this a try!
donna said
have you every tried to make a cuff bracelet with this?
June said
donna, please see my previous answer to this question, here
Jenifer said
Do u sell these rings? Or take orders?or anything like that?
June said
Sorry, Jenifer, I don’t – I’m a crochet pattern designer! But a quick Etsy search should find plenty of people who do sell them
Amanda said
You mentioned you are a crochet pattern designer? How does that work? I have an Idea for a afgahn, but no idea how to bring it to life! lol Could I send you an image of what I want in the pattern?
June said
I’m afraid not, Amanda! You may be able to find someone to commission to design an afghan based on your idea, but that’s not the sort of design work I do – you can see the sort of patterns I design if you look in my shop.
Carrie said
in the last picture of the tutorial, the “background” of the ring is white. How did you do that?
LOVE this idea!
June said
Nothing clever! That’s just the natural colour of normal Shrinkydinks – the rough ‘frosted’ surface looks whiter when it’s been shrunk.
Lore said
Thank you for posting this! Over the years I’ve collected some really beautiful stamps… and I’ve always had an itching to use them on more than journals, day planners, various cards, and just randomly…
Ring patterns is absolutely perfect for them! And this is so simple too!
Becky Kennedy said
Just wondering what do bc I only found matte shrink paper n now my designs almost have to be on the outside? Bc it’s like an opaque white plastic once shrunk n noticing my ink is rubbing off great instructions though very helpful I am the one fishing this up now can u help advice??
June said
Yes, you’d have to have your design on the outside of an opaque ring to see it.
The ink would rub off if you didn’t use a permanent alcohol-based ink as I specify in the tutorial. Also, make sure you read the instructions for your specific shrink plastic to see if there are any other differences – I don’t know if this is the case, but opaque shrink plastic may need sanding before you can print on it. Regular Shrinkydinks comes with a roughened surface that will accept alcohol-based ink, coloured pencils, etc, without any preparation.
You can also seal your designs with a clear coat after shrinking – the Shrinkydinks website has some specific recommendations for types of clear coat.
LaughoutloudPaperProducts said
I came across your project and I am thrilled to try and do this myself. I do have a few questions… can you use colored ink and does the plastic come in colors? Can you hot glue embellishments also and then actually stick? Kinda thought to hide the gap or crease is to use beads, lace and feathers or pearls, the frilly stuff us know? Thank you very much for your help! I also plan on adding you to my website as a link if that is okay? I am currently in the process of cleaning it up, purchasing my domain and advertising and what not, so I’m just trying to get permission from other sites that are similar to yours to allow their link be on my site! Thanks so much in advance and I look forward to keeping in touch! Happy Holidays and hope you have a Merry Christmas!
June said
You’ll have to experiment for yourself if you want to modify my idea with embellishments
You can use any colour of ink provided it’s permanent alcohol-based ink. You can see the Shrinkydinks range at their website – any coloured shrink plastic wouldn’t be translucent though, so you might prefer to colour in the entire background with coloured pencils. And yes, you’re welcome to link to my website!
isabel:D said
as I can do to fix the color better. I buy sharpie (permanent markers) but I feel that the color is erased. Pleas recommend something. already try putting nail varnish and lacquer but the color does not adhere well.
………..
katey said
Where can u find the shrinky Dink plastic n how much does it usually cost?
Gretchen said
I made these rings the other day (came out quite cute, by the way!
However, I’ve noticed that after wearing the ring for only a half a day, the design is starting to smudge off already? I used permanent markers (Sharpies) as you recommended. Not quite sure why it’s smudging already? I used the Matte shrinky dink paper….should I be using Clear instead? Also, should the design be on the outside of the ring, or on the inside of the ring (against my skin)?
Otherwise, a very fun project…and a bit challenging, like you said, to shape it correctly in the 10 seconds you have while it’s still pliable.
Want to try cuff bracelets next, but wanted to see what you recommended for the smudging first.
Thank you!
April said
I just made 3 of these using shrink art plastic and sharpies…. I broke my first attempt and smudged a few not reading the last step about clear coat but the others came out wonderfully and now everyone is asking where I bought them! I love it and plan to make more once I get more plastic!
denice said
Thanks for sharing your expertise. I have seen some plastic jewelry with designs on front and back. Do you know if the ink print paper can be printed on both sides or would the back design be glued on? Thank you
Virginia said
I have not worked with this Plastic before so I was wondering can you make the plastic strip thicker by bakeing 2 layered?
Will the two layers fuse?
V
Taylor said
I featured this awesome tutorial on my blog today! Thanks for sharing!
CJ said
I saw another post for shrinking the packing that fresh fruit comes in. You know those thin plastic snap close vented boxes. Anyway, I haven’t tried it yet but I wonder if it would work for this also?
Gribou said
Dear you.
Where could I buy this one please : http://pinterest.com/pin/195414071302966937/
?
Thank you !
Love.
Marianne
June said
Please see my Pinterest post for the answer to your question
Sonja K. said
I saw this on Pinterest and I love it! Thank you so much for taking the time to share this. I can’t wait to try it.
xiaoxi said
June, thanks for your details and I just want to know, where can I buy some shrink plastic material. would put a interlink on. thank you a lot.
Angie Perry said
I don’t have a website, but I found your shrink rings on a Pinterest board. Would you be interested in making these rings yourself – and I can purchase from you?
Thank you kindly. (please let me know, I will place an order for a size 8 and maybe you can do something I like through your website options)??
A. Perry
Greensboro, NC
3/16/2013
Jenni said
Love it! Great tutorial. I will try this as soon as possible!
Emily said
Have you ever tried plastic from a take out container? I read somewhere it’s the same stuff but can’t remember which number plastic, any thoughts?
kat said
Love the look of these rings and your helpful tutorial.
So excited to give it a try but ran into a problem.
After mine curled it would fall over on its side (tried 2)
and not recover. When I try to stand it up again in the oven,
it seems like it has hardened already and cant be fixed.
What do you think I am doing wrong ?
Should I just leave it in longer ?
Anyone run into this glitch ?
GeorgiegirlofRB said
Hi June,
Thanks again June!
Thank you for such a brilliant idea and easy to follow instructions. I use a heat tool to shrink my shrinkydinks and love watching it curl and uncurl again. When we were kids, we used to put chip packets in the oven and make them into charms! So much fun! For those asking about colours… you can colour plastic using the markers from Kaszazz – Alcohol Ink Art Markers. They’re new out and will colour almost anything!!! My Dad uses them to mark his golf balls! Just experiment and have Fun
Nicole said
Have you ever used glitter on the shrink plastic? I’m wondering if it would just burn in the oven… Thanks!
Penny said
June
Is it possible to attach the ends together and put on a dowel to bake so that it shrinks to the dowel size and eliminates the open ends?
Stacy said
This is awesome June! Great instructions. I now have to go to a craft store and buy some shrinks dink stuff! I love it! Thanks for posting!
Kay said
You can also use things like Number 6 plastic from take out foods instead of adding to the plastics we already have around us.
Tried it and have some great plastic “jewels” I designed with funky patterns.
Leah said
I think this is a neat idea for girley Christmas gifts