Shrinky Dink and Waxed Cord Bracelet

August 25, 2021 Katie

School has started here, and we had some BIG FEELINGS happening in the days leading up to it. My youngest stuck with virtual school all last year, so he was home with me for 18-ish months. As excited as he’s been to see his friends, I knew that getting on the bus the first day might be a challenge. I wanted to do something little but special for him. Since he had his favorite stuffed animal, Puppy, by his side every day of virtual school, I knew I needed to incorporate Puppy somehow. I’ve also seen a lot of people selling back-to-school bracelets the past few years, and that gave me an idea. I decided to make a Puppy bracelet!

I’ve done Shrinky Dink charms with my kids for a long time, but I’d never used them to make a connector charm until this project. It’s super easy to do. I’ll show you what I did and what I used, and hopefully, you’ll be inspired to give it a go yourself!

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Supplies:

Shrink film
Pencil
Permanent markers
Scissors
Hole punch
Waxed cord
Ruler
Lighter

I use waxed polyester cord because it’s durable and you can melt down the ends. You can use any kind of string/cord that you want, though. If you do decide to go with waxed cord, THIS website has all sorts of beautiful colors.

The shrink film you can get at the craft store, or you can order it from Amazon.

Step 1

Start by making your charm. I wasn’t sure exactly how big to make Puppy, so I used the pencil and started sketching him with a pencil. This is actually my second try. One side of the film is smooth, and the other is a little rougher, and the rougher side is what I drew on. I wanted the final charm to be shiny-side up, so I had to reverse my drawing. If you aren’t drawing something where that matters, don’t worry about it. If you’re drawing only with permanent markers, you can draw on either side of the film.

As you can see, Puppy ended up being almost 1.25” tall. Make sure to leave enough room on both sides of your drawing for the holes and a little space around them. Once I was happy with my drawing, I outlined it and filled in the colored spots with my markers.

Punch a hole on either side of your drawing. Cut around it however you want to. Leave a little room around the holes.

Step 2

Bake your charm! The instructions for my shrink film say to preheat the oven to 325 degrees and bake on a foil-lined cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes. That’s exactly what I did. Have you ever watched this stuff bake? It’s fascinating. It curls up first, and you may think it’s going to be ruined, but then it settles down and lays flat again. I checked at just past 2 minutes, and my charm was done. It only took a few seconds to cool down. Look how cute and tiny he is!

Almost exactly 1/2 an inch, to be exact.

Step 3

Turn your drawing charm into a bracelet. You’ll need two long strands of waxed cord, and one shorter one (around 4”). The length of the longer ones will depend on how long you need them to be. For this bracelet, I cut them each 12” long. Depending on the size of the wrist you’re making the bracelet for, as well as the size of the charm, you may need more or less cord. I prefer to err on the side of too long because you can always cut off what you don’t need.

Once you have your cord cut, fold one piece in half and feed it through the top of the hole on one side of the charm. Feed the tails through the loop you now have, and pull it tight. Holding onto the charm, twist each of the two strands separately about five times. Keeping them twisted, stretch them out and hold them together before letting go of the charm. The two strands will twist together. You can twist them a little more to tighten them up if you want, and then you can tie a knot at the end of the strand. Repeat on the other side, and then melt both ends down with a lighter.

Make a circle with the two ends overlapping, and hold them together. With the short piece of cord, tie 4 or 5 square knots (see pictures below) to form a clasp of sorts. Melt the ends down and make sure the whole clasp slides. It should be snug, but the strands should be able to move so that you can loosen and tighten the bracelet.