as a part of their schoolwide math-a-thon earlier this month, kids have been earning dog tags, which are apparently the coolest thing "ever." so, when we were planning activities for halloween parties at school, i immediately thought of putting together a fun little make + take halloween themed dog tag project. surprise surprise, it was a big hit!
what you'll need -
- 8" x 10" sheets of shrinky dinks (we used frosted ruff n' ready purchased at michael's)
- corner rounder (optional)
- single hole punch
- black pencils
- colored pencils
cut the shrinky dinks into 2" x 4" pieces. you can use a corner rounder to make the corners smooth if you like. we like.
then punch a hole in one end. do it a few times to make it larger than the standard single-hole punch, otherwise your chain might not fit through.
with the scratchy side of the shrinky dinks up, draw your desired image onto the plastic.
can't think of what to draw?
here's a copy of the black-line template of a few halloween pals i doodled (a la ed emberley) for the kids to trace. click it + print out onto 8.5" x 11" paper. have fun!
color it in with colored pencils. (be sure to use white colored pencils, too - they turn out amazing.) and if you want to get really fancy, you can retrace the black lines on the reverse/shiny side using a sharpie. i'll admit, i did. it's really cool how even though you color light with the pencils, once the pieces shrink, the colors intensify. cool, eh?
shrink according to manufacturer's instructions - they measure about .75" x 1.5" when done. allow to cool, then strand 'em on a chain + attach to your kiddo's backpack.
since we did them with the kids in the classroom, each kiddo was sent home with a snack-size baggie into which they put their ready-to-shrink tag and preprinted shrinking instructions. i probably should have included mention of where to buy the shrinky dinks, since everybody asked for extras. this project can easily be adapted for other holidays too, or different types of finished pieces. shrinky dinks are used in a few projects in TYV Crafting with Kids and we're always thinking of new uses for them. they were a perfect tie-in with the dog tag craze, that's for sure. enjoy! xoxo
