Grafix Sanded Shrink Film

I priced the Shrinky-Dink brand shrink film and realized it would be too expensive for my large group of kids so I started looking for alternatives. This film by Grafix is perfect and priced very well. This particular film is clear so the resulting shrinky designs look a lot like stained glass. Grafix also offers white film and even film that can be run through your ink jet printer! If you've never used shrinkable film, here's a little tutorial. You'll need shrinkable film, permanent markers or colored pencils, scissors, some parchment paper and something to bake in. I use a cheap toaster oven that I reserve for this and for baking Sculpy clay. Optional supplies are some fine grit sandpaper for lightly sanding the film when using colored pencils, a hole punch, some jump rings and needle nose pliers, key rings and some adhesive-backed magnets. I cut each sheet of film into quarters because a quarter sheet is a good size for shrinking. Larger sheets sometimes shrink strangely and curl in odd ways. Have the child draw a design onto the quarter sheet film, trying to fill the film as much as possible because it will shrink by 50%. If their design is too small, it will be miniscule after baking! If you wish to turn your shrinky designs into charms, keychains or necklaces, you'll need to punch a hole with a hole punch somewhere in the design before baking. If you want to make refrigerator magnets, no hole is necessary. Then cut around the design as desired. Turn your oven on to 350 degrees and let it heat up. A toaster oven works brilliantly for this because it heats very quickly and has a glass door for watching the magic happen. Place the design on a piece of parchment paper and lay on a metal baking tray and place in the oven. Watch closely because the baking process is short! You will notice that the design begins to shrink and curl up. Don't worry. As the shrinking completes, the design will uncurl and become flat again. When it has pretty much flattened out, remove it from the oven. I use tongs and gloves for this because the plastic is very, very hot. Place it on a heat proof surface and slam a heavy book on top of it to make it completely flat. (Kids LOVE this part.) Ta da! You've made a shrinky dink! Sometimes with larger designs or ones with a lot of long thin sections, it will curl a lot and perhaps stick to itself. I have a chopstick I keep next to the toaster oven for intervening when this happens. You will see that the film ends up being much thicker after shrinking so it is no longer flexible. You can seal your design with clear nail polish or a spray sealant, if desired. Magic marker designs can chip a little if not sealed. Colored pencils seem to make the most durable designs, but you need to lightly sand your film before drawing the design. Sanding creates a tooth for the colored pencil lead to catch on. Sand lightly in both directions in a hatch-type fashion. Hint: Buy some metallic Sharpie markers even if you plan to use colored pencils. They add sparkle to every design and the kids seem to adore using them. They come in gold, silver and bronze. Any kid old enough to draw will love making shrinky designs. Kids 11 or 12 or older can even do the baking themselves with supervision. If you're looking for a fun art project to do with kids, I promise you they will be thrilled with this one.

Honestly, reading all the reviews on here about this product and also the unsanded version made my head spin, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. So glad I did because it worked fine! I have to make 100 little charms for a church camp so I really wanted to be able to avoid doing them all by hand. After doing a couple of tests for size I took my master sheet to my local office store and they color copied it onto the sanded side for me, just like an overhead transparency. It looked pretty light and I was worried about the vibrancy of the finished product (I had done my original test ones with Sharpies and they were great). The guy did stick his finger print into the middle of one of them which smudged ever so slightly, but I doubt anyone else would have noticed it especially once it was baked. I came home, cut them out and baked one. I had a piece of baking parchment on the top and bottom as per the instructions. It did stick and took off a little of the ink--again, I'm probably the only one who can see it. I didn't put the parchment on top of the second test one and it was fine. The color of the shrunk end product is great and I needn't have worried about how light the original printing was. The cooled printing seems pretty durable when scratched with my fingernail. If I really wanted to fuss with them, I'd probably spray clear on the printed side and white on the shiny so that they'd really pop, but since it's probably something that the kids are going to loose within a month I'm not going to bother. Unbaked, they're about 2 square inches and they shrunk 50%. I baked them at 300*F. My first test pieces were baked individually and they took 3 minutes. When I baked 10 together I used a bigger, heavier baking sheet and they took about 4 1/2 minutes before they were finished. I may raise the temp to 325 for my next batch. I had very little warping. I don't know if I'd want to attempt this on my own printer, but I was VERY pleased with the results I got having them done at the office store. It's worth the 75c a sheet to have it done on the big machine. I would highly recommend this product and this method to anyone.

Do not buy in the middle of summer if you live in the south! Sheets arrive half shrunk!

I'm not really sure what others would do with so much green shrink plastic, but I purchased it for a specific costuming project. I didn't end up using it for the costume, but I did end up creating a really nifty sea anemone prop out of this plastic. Here's what I can tell you about this shrink plastic: The color is exactly what you see. It is definitely a neon green plastic. You get a lot of it. For as inexpensive as this product is, you sure do get your money's worth of shrinking plastic! I had to fiddle around with it a bit to get it to shrink correctly. There seems to be a "right side" and a "wrong side" to the plastic. If you bake it in the oven on the "wrong side" it curls up on itself. This worked to my advantage, as the prop I was making needed to bend over on itself. However, if you are making something that needs to be flat, figure out which side to cook it on with scrap plastic. There was a very slight odor as the plastic melted, but I would expect that with plastic. It was minimal, and diffused quickly. I tried out sharpies for coloring on this, and they showed up vibrantly. Colored pencils also work, but you have to sand the plastic first, in order for the colors to show up. The green is not great for having colored pencils show up, however. I would imagine that lighter / neutral colors would work better.

Easy to use, you can make different projects and the results are great. I used Sharpies, acrylic paint and colors are great. Paper quality is excellent, have texture, projects are durable.

This was so much fun! We used it for two different age groups (7-11 and 12-18). Both groups loved making these! We did buy tassel keychains to put on them if the kids wanted. We cut the pages into 6ths. That seemed to be about the right size for putting on a keychain. You can also put these through your printer. I needed to have a small stack of them in my printer tray as it would pull them through funny if I didn't. One page got stuck but I was able to get it out after it melted in half :O I only printed about 15 pages with lines and left the rest blank for freeform design and writing. Any holes you make in them will shrink, so we used a half inch sized hole punch, a little smaller would be ok but I just used what I had. I would definitely do a bit of testing as lots of different things affect the shrinking process. Don't panic when they start to curl up, I ruined my first ones by opening the oven door and trying to fix them. We did have a few get stuck but we were able to mostly uncurl them before they cooled to much, and there was plenty for the kids to just make another. Toaster ovens work too but take a while if you are doing more than one or two. Microwaves do not work. We also learned to only put one tray in at a time to shrink. Enjoy!!

Just like the fun Shrinky Dinks we all remember as kids, these are just as fun and easy - they are basically the next generation of Shrinky Dinks. Grafix Sanded Shrink Film has a great surface to color on - these thick sheets of plastic accept lots of media. I have successfully used all sorts of things to add color to these prior to shrinking, but the best advice I can give you is to experiment and see what works best for you. (If you are truly stumped, Sharpies are foolproof with these.) These save you a step since they arrive pre-sanded and ready to go. The sanding helps the plastic really grab and hold onto color - and these retain crazy detail. Stamping with StazOn (or similar permanent ink) is one of my favorite uses for these - it is so easy to make darling embellishments, gift tags, jewelry charms, etc in no time at all with this method. A quick stamp, a bit of color, a hole punched for hanging...heat with a heat gun or toaster oven (or the regular oven) and VIOLA! Very sweet creation that didn't require any drawing or artistic skills at all, but look like they did. I have found these shrink to about 40% of their original size and become quite thick. People will wonder where you bought them and you will enjoy telling them your wacky, crafty self actually made them. (Don't tell them how easy it was - a good artist/crafter never gives up all the secrets! lol) I love using these on "consumable" gifts - flowers, food, etc. You know, gifts that don't last forever. By making a personalized charm and attaching it with a ribbon around flowers...taking an extra 2 minutes to adhere a magnet to the back (after shrinking!) and presenting your personalized magnet with concert tickets...or even spending an extra 5 minutes and adding some super easy ear wires (maybe a bead or two if you have some around) - then attaching them to the edible item you are gifting with bakers string or twine - and you will be giving two gifts in one. Every time the recipient wears the earrings or looks at the magnet, they will remember the gift and think of you. I love stuff like that. (Just remember these shrink to almost half the size you originally create - so be sure to get the correct size magnet!) (Ask me how I know...never mind.) I also used these a lot when my kids were small. I made personalized tags for their backpacks, etc, by attaching these with ball chain key chains. Although the ball chain key chains are incredibly cheap, you could always use whatever you have handy to attach these - ribbon, glue, string, a split ring key chain, etc. Since these are so easy to write on (with Sharpie, for example) and are so easy to read once reduced, I've made some very fun "over the hill" cards, and included a plastic magnifying glass for the aging friend. My problem is not finding a use for these...it is stopping! I want to write, draw, stamp, and then shrink everything! (The phone company probably wouldn't appreciate receiving a shrunken copy of my check as payment, for example. They're sense of humor is lacking. Ask me how I know...forget it.) Ok, ok. I'll stop now! Bottom Line: Extremely easy to use. Accepts a wide variety of media. I find using a heat gun to shrink these to be the easiest method, but they work just as well in a regular or toaster over. These will distort as they shrink, sometimes the plastic kind of folds up on itself. No worries! They usually straighten out without any intervention - if not, CAREFULLY peel apart while the plastic is still warm. (Right out of the oven or just as you turn off the heat gun.) Remember, they will be HOT! Using a pick or similar tool, gently pull apart and press to flatten. You can always briefly return them to your heat source if you need to. Similarly, you can lift the still-warm plastic and carefully lay it over a mold (pop can, cup, bottle, whatever) to shape the plastic. Leave it on the mold until cool. How fun is that?! Just please remember the plastic is HOT and careful attention must be paid to avoid injury. (Ask me how I know...or don't!) It's also important to remember to punch any holes BEFORE shrinking. Although you can drill holes afterward, it is much easier to make the hole prior to heating. (Yes, the hole shrinks, too...so don't make some tiny hole thinking you are only connecting it to a jump ring or something - because the hole will melt closed. Or so I've heard. <ahem>) Before heating, the plastic is in sheet form - think thick transparency. After heating, the sheet becomes approximately 9 times thicker and is not at all flexible once cool. (The plastic will snap instead of bend.) These are also not for use in any printer - be sure to get the type for printers if that is your intended use. (Again, ask me how I know...or not!) I wholeheartedly recommend these for adults and children (with supervision for the heating part, duh) and consider these a fantastic family project. The large number of sheets you receive in this package will keep you shrinking for a long time!

I love this stuff so much! A tip we've found useful is to sand the side you're going to color on just a little bit, it will help the color stick a little better! It literally takes two seconds to do. Just rub a little piece of sand paper all over. Also if you use sharpies to color on it make sure the sharpie (and sandpapered) side is facing up otherwise you'll lose all your art work to the parchment paper when it shrinks! I really love this stuff! I've been making shrinkydinks like crazy and it's such a throwback! I'm 20 and I have so much fun, my 6, 8, and 12 year old cousins also really love it! As long as they like coloring they'll love this! Watching it shrink in the oven is so fun too!

Cumple con la descripción, buen artículo para trabajos manuales.

Good value and kids loved it

I'm very happy with this Shrink Plastic and it's exactly as expected. I found the instructions very limited and found many tutorials online very vague so I will share some tips I have figured out. This review/tips are Specific to my experience with the White Shrink Plastic I purchased here. Overall I find this glossy shrink plastic works best when it is prepared by sanding throughly with a fine grit sandpaper (I use 400 or 600 grit). By doing this the surface holds the ink/colour better and makes the design more durable after baking. I don't draw freehand very well and before purchasing this I couldn't tell if I would be able to trace through this or not. I found that before baking it is translucent enough to be able to trace through as long as the image you're tracing has a dark outline. To make it easier I use a lightbox app on my tablet to light up the image from behind. I've tried various methods of colouring as well as finishing and this is what I've found. Printing: There are many questions here about whether this is suitable for the printer or not. In my experience this is not the best shrink plastic for printing. I have a Canon Megatank Inkjet Printer and have tried it on different print settings. The best results I managed were when I prepared the shrink plastic by sanding it with a fine grit sandpaper (600 grit), having the print settings on plain paper and printing an image with very little ink. I found a thin outline would print well but any areas with more ink would just pool and smudge off. Even after baking the ink had not fully set and the darker areas smudged some but the areas with less ink seem to have set. Stamping: I tried stamping with a few different ink pads. Stayzon Multi Surface ink seems to be the most permanent ink after it is baked and even holds up to using Modge Podge Dimensional Magic as a top coat. Markers: The best markers I've found are by far Posca Paint Markers. These will go on either a sanded or unsanded surface evenly and hold up well either way. A sanded surface is still most durable though as they will scratch off an unsanded surface if you don't put anything on to seal the colour after baking. I've also used BIC Permanent Markers and the colours turn out very pretty and seem to stand up well after baked. Pencil Crayon: Pencil Crayon works only if you prep the surface by sanding but after that they work great. I use prismacolour pencil crayons and they give a nice rich colour after baking and seem to hold up very well. Finishing/Sealing: I like to seal my baked piece to help make them look more finished and protect the image. I've found 3 methods work best. Modge Podge Dimensional Magic looks the best when it's finished but will make certain colours run when it's applied. It works best over Posca Markers or Stayzon Multi Surface Ink. Other markers, inks and some pencil crayons will run/smudge when it's applied. Water Based Polyurathene works over almost anything to seal the colour and make it more durable without making colours run.

This stuff works very well. Had to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius. When they shrink the plastic turns white. So colour and draw on one side. Also, It shrinks to a little under half of the original size of what it was before shrinking. Very fun to use. I use this for badges and key chains.

this is everything I dreamed of and more. perfect paper for perfect results. it’s more expensive than other brands but you’re paying for quality