DIY Frozen Ornament
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Ok, yes I realize that it’s October, and it’s a little early for Christmas, but I was inspired! And, this is a great little craft for a rainy day, and can easily be used as a suncatcher throughout the year.
Remember Shrinky Dinks? I do! Well, you can now buy plain 8.5″ x 11″ shrink film at your local craft store or on Amazon. You can purchase inkjet sheets or the much cheaper non-printer compatible type. Because I’m cheap, I chose the non-printer type. I purchased mine from JoAnn Fabrics for $5.99 less a 30% off coupon.
Amazon has both types- (affiliate link)
Grafix KSF6-CIJ 8-1/2-Inch by 11-Inch Shrink Film, Printable, Clear Inkjet, 6-Pack
Grafix KSF6-C 8-1/2-Inch by 11-Inch Shrink Film, Clear, 6-Pack
For this craft you need clear sheets.
Next, you need coloring pages. I downloaded Frozen coloring pages from the Disney UK website. The UK website has much better coloring pages, by the way!
I printed Olaf and Elsa coloring sheets. I did not change the size in any way.
I placed Olaf underneath the horizontal shrink film, and taped in place.
I then traced Olaf with a Sharpie.
It’s definitely not perfect!
I then repeated with Elsa. I just used a regular Sharpie, but if you want more detail use a regular and a thin-line Sharpie.
I used scissors to cut around the characters
Miss V was very excited about this! We colored using magic markers.
The last thing I did was punch a hole at the top of the film, and add “2014” at the bottom.
Place between 2 sheets of parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Bake at 300 degrees. The instructions say 2-3 minutes, but I found 5-7 was probably more accurate.
The shrink film will curl severely, and I had an OMG moment, where I thought all was ruined. Hang in there, after another minute everything flattened out perfectly.
Elsa was originally about 5″ wide by 6.5″ tall. She shrunk to about 2″ wide by 2.75″ tall.
Add ribbon, and voila, a perfect Christmas ornament or suncatcher!
If you’d like the inks to be more permanent you can spray on an acrylic gloss. I did not do this step, and even after a short amount of handling, some of the magic marker rubbed off. For the next set, I’ll definitely be doing this.
This craft works with pretty much any coloring sheet or drawing. It’s also an inexpensive gift. We’ll be doing some for Christmas this year, but what to make? Hmm.. more Frozen or maybe Mickey’s Christmas Carol? I’ll have to figure it out, but I know we’ll have fun!
Have you tried this with yourself or with your kids? Let me know in the comments or on Facebook! By the way, I love pictures! 🙂
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which help support this site. Thank you for using our links!
Try sanding the shrink plastic on one side, sanding in all directions, ( or skip the sanding and buy the shrink plastic with a matte finish), and the color with colored pencils. This will be more permanent than markers. For older kids you can use markers such as sharpies, which are permanent. The colors will be very vibrate after they shrink–using both methods. Make sure you create your pattern in reverse on the matte side, so that you can see your image clearly from the shiny side. The picture looks great from the shiny side.