How to Make a Shrinky Dink Memory Bracelet

My children loved Shrinky Dinks when they were little. My grandchildren love them just as much today.

While this craft item may seemed more suited for play than anything else, the truth is it really doesn’t have to be. I have used Shrinky Dinks to make beautiful memory bracelets for family members and friends.

Here is what you will need to do the same: Shrinky Dink shrink sheets (clear or opaque), permanent markers in various colors including black, a charm bracelet that has at least 12 chain links, jewelry O rings, thee-hole punch, pictures to copy, scissors, flat cookie sheet and oven.

Follow this step by step instructions to make fun memory bracelets for the women in your life:

Step 1: Decide on the memories you want to include on the bracelet. These might include, but wouldn’t necessarily be limited to, birthdays, sweet 16 party, wedding, children’s birth, anniversaries and occupation. You might also wish to commemorate certain memories like running a marathon or losing a lot of weight. Think about fun events like camping, travel and vacation destinations. Let your mind go wild with ideas that might incorporate any memory that might be precious to the person for whom you are making the bracelet.

Step 2: Choose simple pictures that represent each memory outlined in Step 1. For example, to represent a child’s birth, you might use a stork; for a birthday, a cake; for a wedding, bells. Don’t choose pictures that are too detailed in nature since those will be lost as the piece shrinks.

Step 3: Copy your pictures on to Shrinky Dink sheets using permanent markers. You can just outline them for a black & white image or fill them in to add color.

Step 4: Carefully cut out each image. Cut outside the black outline. If a bit of the Shrinky Dink clear plastic shows, that is okay, as it will shrink away when you process it.

Step 5: Punch a hole in the top of each charm picture using a single hole punch that is at least one-quarter inch in diameter.

Step 6: Place the pictures, face up, at least two inches apart on a flat cookie sheet. Following the instructions that come with Shrinky Dinks, preheat the oven to the prescribed temperature.

Step 7: Place the cookie sheet in the pre-heated oven for the allotted amount of time outlined in the instructions. Watch the pictures as they shrink. If they begin to curl do not panic. A certain amount of that is inevitable in the shrinking process. If they do not uncurl; however, reach into the oven with a wooden skewer and force the curls apart.

Step 8: Remove the charms from the oven once shrinking has finished. Let cool. If any of the charms did not come out well, you may go back and redo them using the same or another picture. Follow the same instructions above until all charms are satisfactorily completed.

Step 9: Attach a jewelry O ring to each charm using the hole you punched previously.

Step 10. Attach each charm to the charm bracelet using the open O ring provided on each. Line the charms up in a previously determined order or mix them up as desired.

Step 11. Close each O ring completely so that the charm will not disengage from the bracelet.

Step 12. Place the memory bracelet in a box and gift it as desired.

Memory bracelets are great for girls age 6 and up. While the bracelets are strictly for fun, they will still find a special place in the heart of the ladies for whom they were prepared. I know this to be true because I have a sorority sister who has kept hers for the last 20 years.

A gift from the heart can never go wrong!