ColourCraft: Shrink plastic key fob with Karen

Wednesday 22 May 2019

Shrink plastic key fob with Karen

I acquired yet another set of keys recently and wanted a nice key fob for them so set about making one myself: I think many people have some shrink plastic lurking in their stash of crafting goodies and it is such a fun material. If you haven't already tried it, I urge you to get some: It can become quite addicitve when you start thinking of all the things you can make with it.

I chose a stamp that would otherwise be far too big for a key fob and stamped it on one side of some shrink plastic with permanent ink suitable for impermeable surfaces (StazOn).

On the reverse side to where I had stamped, I painted in the details with some of my finest golden brushes and my Colourcraft Acrylic paints. These are good on the plastic surface and air dry quite quickly.

This is from the stamped side before it was shrunk:

I then cut round the shape leaving a good margin and avoiding having any sharp edges. To enable a jump ring to be added afterwards, I punched a hole through before using a heat gun to heat the plastic and watch it twist and curl before magically straightening out in to its smaller size. Here is the size of the original stamp in comparison to the size after heating and shrinking!

It's important to remember that any colours will become darker and more intense as the plastic shrinks: Plan for this by keeping colours lighter than you want the finished look to be.

With the jump ring added to attach my new fob to my keyring, I am happy with the new addition. Shrink plastic can be used to make necklace pendants, charms and a whole host of other things. I hope you think to give it a try or dig it out of your stash and have some more shrink fun!