Make your own super cute donut charm bracelet with shrinky dink plastic! Makes a great quick & easy DIY gift idea – SO many fun possibilities!
Friday, June 3rd is National Donut Day, and we seize each and every possible opportunity to celebrate donuts here at Happiness is Homemade headquarters! I wanted to wear my donut-loving heart on my sleeve (literally!), so I created this adorable shrink plastic donut charm bracelet that’s as quick and easy to make as it is cute!
What You’ll Need:
- Shrink Plastic (available in several colors & finishes – I used matte)
- Sharpie Markers
- Posca Paint Pens
- Diamond Glaze or Lilly Glaze High Definition Glass Epoxy
- Chain Link Bracelet
- Jump Rings
- Jewelry Pliers
I’m awful at drawing and sketching, so I took the easy way out and printed out some cute donut clip art to trace with my Sharpie marker instead. The plastic shrinks by about 50%, so I printed out my donuts around 2″ in size. The matte shrink plastic is translucent before shrinking (so it’s super simple to trace through), but will turn near-opaque white once it’s been shrunk.
Once I had my Sharpie outline completed, I filled in all of the details with Posca paint markers, allowing the paint to dry in between colors. Once the paint was completely dry, I used scissors to cut out my donuts, and I used a hole punch to create the holes for my jump rings. Note: make sure you use a full sized hole punch or else the hole will end up being too small for the rings!
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Place the donuts on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and bake for 3-4 minutes, watching the entire time. The plastic will begin to shrink, and it will start to curl up – don’t worry! This is normal! Once the piece has finished shrinking, it will flatten itself out again.
When the plastic has finished shrinking, remove from the oven and allow to cool. Any pieces that are still slightly curled or curved can be flattened by placing another sheet of parchment paper and a heavy book on top of them while they are still warm. You can see here that my 2″ donuts shrank down to smaller-than-a-quarter size!
To ensure that the paint and Sharpie doesn’t wear off of the charms, I coated them with a thick layer of high definition glass epoxy glaze. This sealer takes several hours to dry, so I set it aside overnight to dry completely before moving on to the next step.
The epoxy glaze leaves the charm with a shiny and durable high gloss finish, perfect for “high traffic” charms like these that might be subjected to ample wear and tear on my wrist all day long.
I crafted more charms than would actually fit on my bracelet, so I opted to save the pastel versions (made with Prismacolor markers) for another project.
The jump rings make quick work of attaching the charms to the bracelet – easy peasy!
Seriously, how stinkin’ adorable are these donut charms? These bracelets would make a fantastic inexpensive homemade gift idea!
If you love this DIY donut charm bracelet, you might also love:
Printable Donut Thank You Notes
Lillian says
Gah! What a fun post! Makes my mouth drool! 😛 Happy National Donut day!
http://www.theoccupiedoptimist.blogspot.com
Yuri B. says
Did you fill in the color on the matted side or on the glossy side of the Shrinky Dink film?
Heidi says
My brand of shrink plastic doesn’t have a different finish on both sides, but for the ones that do, I believe that the ink goes on the matte side.
Laetitia says
What is your brand of epoxy glaze please
Heidi says
I use Diamond Glaze or Lilly Glaze High Definition Glass Epoxy.
Makayla says
Hello! I was wondering if you use an acrylic sealer first or just the glazes? Which (diamond glaze or Lilly D’s) do you prefer? I have been struggling to find a sealer that doesn’t cause my sharpie ink to run.
Heidi says
Hi Makayla, I don’t generally use a sealer, just the glaze as the finish coat. I find the Diamond Glaze and the Lilly D’s to be pretty similar for this application, so I don’t really have a preference between the two. 🙂
Chelsea says
I’m SO into drawing on shrinky dink plastic lately, but I’m having trouble with my Sharpie markings smearing before I am able to get them in the oven (even after leaving some on a shelf for WEEKS, they still smeared some.)
Has anyone else had these problems? Any other permanent markers that hold well?
Rachel says
Do you by chance know what size jump rings you used? What mm? There are so many choices on Amazon!
Heidi says
I believe they are approx 6 mm rings! 🙂
Leslie says
How did you poke the hole for the jump ring? And when did you do it?
Heidi says
I use a standard size hole punch to punch the holes in the plastic before shrinking. The holes will shrink down to the perfect size for jump rings and jewelry findings! 🙂
Lorae says
Hello! The donut charm bracelet is adorable. Is there any way to get the template for the donut bracelet?
Bev Jones says
Can I ask how you get the best finish from the posca markers? I have bought some and just on my swatches of colour they get a bit ‘furry’ looking.
Heidi says
I’ve never run into issues with the Posca Markers being fuzzy or being anything other than smooth on the shrink plastic film I am using. I generally use them as is and add a layer of sealer as described in the post. 🙂