I know, I know, you don’t believe me when I say Shrinky Dinks  can be used to make a gorgeous Mother’s Day gift. But seriously, what’s more adored than a piece of your child’s art? Here’s what we’re making to give our beloved Nana and Grandma this year for Mother’s Day.

Shrinky Dink Art Bookmark

Materials

1 package of Shrinky Dink shrink plastic
hole punch
jump rings (available at any craft store)
jeweller’s pliers (also available at any craft store, though not totally necessary, you may be able to open and close jump rings with your fingers)
metal book mark or length of chain
pencil
pencil crayons to colour in the art
scissors
baking sheet
parchment paper

Shrinky Dinks shrink to approximately 1/3 their original size, so to make this easier, cut the shrink plastic to the size you’d like the art to be (to avoid a too-large piece). Last summer, my kids and I had a blast making all kinds of Shrinky Dink charms, and they love creating something then watching it shrink in just minutes in the oven.

Design the charm, and make sure to punch the hole before you melt the pieces.

This is the drawing my four-year-old son drew of him and his big sister together. He drew it with pencil, then coloured the charm using pencil crayons. It’s outlined with a Sharpie marker.

Open your jump ring to attach it to the charm. Note that you’ll want to go a bit bigger rather than smaller for these, because when the charms shrink, they get thicker.

The final design is really up to you. Because I had these cute metal bookmarks on hand, I wanted to make a dangly charm, so I added a few extra jump rings.

If you have a little piece of chain, you could attach the jump rings to that instead and use it as a bookmark, too. Get creative! Isn’t the finished gift adorable?

You could also attach a charm to a chain, or even to a key ring (the hardware for key chains are also sold at craft stores). The possibilities are endless, and the resulting gifts are personal, beautiful and guaranteed to be cherished.