After my last craft project, Animal Sewing Cards, I wasn’t quite ready to put the little designs away. So today, I created some fun pieces by printing the dog image onto Shrinky Dinks Inkjet printable sheets, punching holes and stitching them up to create a fun necklace.
You can use regular non-printable Shrinky Dinks sheets for this project and trace your images from the free PDF download below. Just click on it to save. I’ve sized the animals with the holes being exactly the correct size for the smaller 1/8″ hole punch. 
Once traced and colored onto to regular Shrinky Dinks sheets, or digitally modified (colored, image-repeated, etc.) and printed to images to Shrinky Dinks inkjet printable sheets, trim out each piece leaving a margin around the outside of the hole areas. Punch holes and bake the pieces as per manufacturer directions. I use a little toaster oven I picked up at the hardware store for around $30 that I keep in my studio, clean and free of food.
I chose to make a cute necklace to honor our super-sweet dogs, Scout and Maggie.
I printed out the dog images and a little heart and punched my holes. Once baked and shrunk, I stitched in and out of the holes with some tinsel wrapped thread I had in my stash. Strands of colorful embroidery thread would work great as well. You can finish off the back by adhering felt or leather, or keep it as is and tack the end threads down with super glue.
I coated the final sewn pieces with satin spray acrylic. Then, by threading jump rings through some of the stitching holes, combined the pieces and attached to chain.
This isn’t a necklace I will likely wear, but it’s so cute as it now embellishes a small lampshade next to my reading chair.
Click on coupon to go to ShrinkyDinks.com
You are a genius.
LOL!
so you really never rest.
does your family hear your mental gears running all the time?
happy new year….xow.
That is so cool! I hope you had a lovely Christmas! Happy New Years! Here’s to a fabulous new year!
Wow, you’re reading my mind.
I just wrote a post about Shrinky Dinks and referenced your flower bouquets.
This is super cute – I would wear it!
How cute is this idea! Love it…thanks for sharing. Happy New Year to you and your family.
That is so cute. We don’t have the shrinky dinky stuff here unfortunately. I think it would be wonderful to make a memory bracelet too 🙂
Hugs and a happy new year to you and yours Cathe 🙂
Great tutorial! I reblogged it here, hope it’s okay. 🙂
http://procraftinate.tumblr.com/post/2551742343/via-http-justsomethingimade-com-punch-holes-in
Just darling!
How clever!!! Happy new year =)
How clever you are! These are adorable. They are casual, but elegant. Love them. Thanks for sharing!
Great project! Thanks for the idea!
My little elderly Chihuahua still likes to “doll up” but needs things that are light weight to wear.
I think she should have a necklace like this (with Chihuahuas, of course).
Also want to make her a shrinky-dink I.D. tag…..
What a great project! I’ll have to try this with my daughter – she’ll get such a kick out of it!
These are fabulous!
OOO! I have a black Lab too, Indiana Jones, Indy for short. He’s going to be 3 on the Ides of March.
I’ve come to the conclusion that “everybody loves a Lab!” I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t fall in love with mine and everyone has a story about a Lab they’ve loved at some time.
Bless their sweet, gentle souls. Labs are THE BEST dogs ever! Yours are beautiful.
If you want to see mine, pics on my Flickr (tatterededge).
This is so clever! I am going to find that shrinky dink and a new little oven for my craft room. Thank you so muich for sharing Cathe!
Super idea! So cute.
A lampshade ‘bellie? Pure darn genius!! Yor canine angels are so precious, you are truly blessed.
I had the privilege to meet a tiny little black (retriever?) pup yesterday, and that wee baby totally made my day.
I went to work all grumpy and moody, and during a cig break, his “daddy” (a new customer) walked up with this tiny fluffbag in his arm.
Boy, I gave fluffbag my heart that very instant.
The customer, I think, is irish, but I can’t understand a single word he says, so I don’t even know what to call the little blessing, but he (the blessing, not the customer) did not seem to mind. We made friends straight away, and I love the way he transformed an awful day into something memorable.
Same with Scooby, an adult golden retriever. He brightens my day like no spotlight could, and when his “daddy” brings him in, nothing else matters anymore.
There is just something about dogs… where cats dish out their kinda sour, reluctant appreciation in homeopathic doses just to ensure the food supply is guaranteed, a dog will shower you with tokens of friendship. I have four cats which I love dearly and would defend with my life (because without them, life would be, frankly, a lot emptier- sorry, fiancee!) , but dogs are deffo the icing of the cake when nothing else can put a smile on your face!
Cathe, this is such an adorable idea! I had no clue you could buy Shrinky Dink printable sheets either, which is something great I can put in my vault!!!
What a coincidence. Our 2 labs are named Maggie and Scout too! Cute project. Love your blog
Visiting you from One Pretty Thing. These are “sew”cute. I have some shrinky dink film. I really want to try this idea out. Thanks for sharing.
Splendid! That is the cutest dang thing I have ever seen. I’m going to have to look into doing my own variation. Thanks for sharing 🙂
That’s adorable! I made some shrinky dink ornaments this winter and was wondering what the next project would be. Really, I just like saying “Shrinky Dink” ;o)
Take care,
Margot
Here’s the link in case you want a look-see:
http://margotmadison.blogspot.com/2010/12/diy-friday-creative-hand-made-ornaments.html
I love this!
What a cute project! I’ve never seen this done with shrinky-dinks before!
Very cute!! Thanks!
How adorable! Where on earth do you find these sheets though?
I buy mine at Michaels. I believe you can also find them on Amazon : )
Very Cute Cathe! Thanx for Sharing! I love the dogs too! We have an AKC 4yr old Yellow Lab named Buddy (Sir Jasper IV) n are getting ready to purchase a Female Chocolate for Puppies! Thanx Again! I’ll be back….:-) D’Ann
super duper craft idea, I just may have to try it out.
I just love this. I’m about to make a shrinky dink lampshade for my son’s kindergarten class art project. I’ve been looking for good examples/directions to join individual shrinky dinks together and this is perfect. And I love the sewing idea–that’s just so cool. Thanks for sharing your awesome idea!
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Just a passing observation: does your yellow lab and mammary tumors?
Sorry, I meant that to read: lab have mammary tumors.
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If you’re on a budget or just want to recycle, you can use plastic #6 (identifiable by the number inside the Recycle-triangle/ usually stamped on bottom) in place of buying shrinky dink sheets.
You’d be surprised at how many items (clear & opaque) you can use.
Plastic to-go containers, cup lids, and meat trays are a few examples.
BTW, my yellow-Lab, Rudi, was and will always be the best friend/dog I’ll ever know!