Shrink Plastic Tag

          Here's a short picture-series of what I did to make a plastic nametag as an accessory for one of my costumes. I wanted an oversized plastic bone-shaped tag for one of my costumes, so I purchased a product called "PolyShrink: Artist's grade shrink plastic" at a local scrapbooking store for $5 for 8 sheets of it. (Their website is http://www.luckysquirrel.com.) Shrink plastic is also known as "Shrinky Dinks." 

          I cut out my bone-shape out of a whole sheet of shrink plastic, using scissors, razor blade, and hole punch. The "before" size was about 10 inches. 

Using sandpaper, I sanded the surface to prepare it for my colored pencils. I used Prismacolor brand colored pencils for my lettering. I sanded and decorated both sides.

I preheated my oven to 300 degrees. And put the whole shape in there on a plain piece of cardboard for about 5 minutes. I had to constantly watch it, since the shrink plastic curls and moves around as it is shrinking, so I had to take it out of the oven a few times to separate where it got stuck to itself. The packaging also suggested using a heat gun to shrink the plastic, this probably would've been quicker and less-hassle, but I didn't have my heat gun handy, so used a regular oven.

You can see it looks all wrinkly during the shrinking process. I left it in the oven until it was mostly flat. Taking it out every minute or so, and "helped" by flattening it with another piece of cardboard to make sure it wouldn't cool all curled. 

Once the final product cooled, I sprayed it with a clear sealant to protect it and make it super-shiny. I also attached a clip with a swivel to clip it to a collar. The final product ended up being 4 inches long and the thickness is about as thick as a 25¢ coin, and has the texture of a shirt button.