Magical Plastic

I finally found it! I found the magical plastic!

After raiding the recycling bins of many friends (well, really just one friend), I finally found #6 plastic. Using this great tutorial, I made my very own shrinky bracelet.

And it's so easy to make your own!

Well, it's sort of easy. I ended up messing up my first batch because the holes weren't big enough and I took the pieces out of the oven too soon...

Instructions

1. Find your plastic. Look for the number inside the triangle on plastic containers and make sure it says 6. I found my plastic at Coldstone. Actually I'd been searching high and low for #6 plastic and didn't even notice the cups; a friend pointed it out to me. Keep in mind that plastic containers with flat surfaces will shrink better than round surfaces, so chose a box over a cup.

2. Cut your beads. They'll shrink to about a third of the size, so plan accordingly.

3. Color your beads. (Steps 2 and 3 can be switched up. Totally up to you.) Using permanent markers, draw pictures or designs on your plastic. I drew sail boats and anchors and stripes on mine to match my outfit.

4. Punch holes. Use a standard hole punch to punch holes. You can also round the edges with a nail clipper so they won't be so sharp.

In my first batch, I used a push pin to poke holes, but the holes were way too small once they shrunk. Use a hole punch! I messed up so you don't have to! 

5. Bake. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place beads on a lined cookie sheet and place in the oven. All of the tutorials I read said the plastic would curl after about 30 seconds, but mine took 45 seconds - 1 minute. Just be patient. Once they start to flatten again, you can pull them out. While they're still hot, you can press them flat. Just be careful, because they're hot!

My first batch didn't turn out too great. I took them out of the oven too early and didn't flatten them soon enough. 

So I started again with batch two. (The waves from the cup ended up going away once the plastic shrunk.)

6. Make your bracelet. I strung my beads together with stretchy cord, but you could also attach them with jump rings or anything else. Just make it your own!

Hope this is helpful. Remember to check out Rust & Sunshine's tutorial!

Happy crafting!