Shrinky dink earrings

Do you know what I love? Earrings! Especially making them. Well, buying them is fun too.. but not as much fun. And more costly.
When I make earrings, or jewellery in general, i use mainly beads, but also old shampoo bottles, buttons, string, wire... really anything small and light enough to hang from an earlobe (isn't lobe a gross word somehow?).

Shrinky dinks are also fun (or as me and my sister call them, shrinkles krimpie, since we got ours from Holland and the label said that. Also, it sounds funnier).
For anyone who hasn't heard of this amazing shrinking plastic: it's amazing!

They sell them in Finland too, at least in Sinelli, but I think they're a bit overpriced there. They go by the name of ''kutistemuovi''!
Before they sold it here we got our dad to buy some in Holland and send it over, they're not the ''original'' shrinky dinks, but work just as well I'm sure. I use mainly the clear plastic, because it's easy to trace on from a picture underneath and I think the end result is prettier than with the white plastic.

They start out as A4 sized pieces of plastic, and you can draw on them, cut them out, stick them in the oven for about 4 minutes at 165 C, and they thicken and shrink to be used as, well, anything really. I usually make earrings, charms (for bracelets, necklaces, rings, key rings, wine glass markers...) and magnets out of them.

One of the first things I made was a pair of shrinky dink sweets earrings

They started off as scribbles on a piece of paper:

You then place the plastic on top and copy what you want on to that, cut them out, punch in holes etc, and bake. They shrink by about a third and become a few millimeters thick. Then you can make whateeever you want with your new creations, hurraaahh! (It's a good idea to coat them with some clear varnish first, on the drawn side)

Here's a batch I made earlier!

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One of my candlestick-plate cupcake holders made it here too. As you can see, they're very handy for hanging earrings, and you can keep bracelets and rings on the plate! And they're very easy to make. I bought the plate and candlestick from my local Kierrätyskeskus, washed them, dried them, and glued them together with some strong glue.

Cheap, easy, cute and fun!