I think I got just as excited as the kids when the opportunity came up to review a Shrink Design Jewellery kit from myStyle Craft. I used to love this stuff when I was a kid - it used to be called Shrinkie Dinkie back in the eighties and the last sheets we bought were called Fantastic Plastic - and there's just something so magical about watching your pictures shrink into miniature but otherwise identical designs in the oven.
I'd never thought of using it to make jewellery though, but it's a great idea.
The kit contains everything you need for creating seven pieces of jewellery (plus any extras you come up with by yourself), including necklaces, earrings and bracelets. Inside the box, you get plenty of Shrink-Plastic sheets for the projects, plus 30 Jump Rings, 3 Clasps, 6 Clamshell Clasps, 4 Earring Hooks, 240 Seed Beads (in 3 colours), 1m Plastic Stretch Cord, 3m Black Cord, a Mini Hole Punch and a 32 Page Instruction Manual.
I showed Sophie some of the designs suggested on the box. Lots of them would appeal to quite young girls.
But the instruction manual also contains templates for some edgier, slightly more grown-up designs that would appeal to tweens and teens.
Sophie said she had her own idea though ...
Did you guess ? I did ! One Direction of course ! If you want to do writing, you'll need to do mirror writing so that it will come out the right way round on the finished design.
Time for the moment of truth - into the oven for a couple of minutes.
Sophie couldn't watch, because I'd warned her that the plastic might curl up and stick to itself.
Sure enough, it wasn't looking good and we feared the worst.
But I told you it's magic ! With just a little bit of patience and faith, if you leave it in the oven a little longer, when it's fully shrunk, it all flattens out again. You can place it under a book as soon as it comes out of the oven if you want it to be totally flat.
Sophie hadn't wanted to punch holes in her 1D masterpieces in case it made the plastic split but we will definitely be making some of the projects from the book next ... maybe with a 1D twist on them. We think infinity sign earrings could be very cool and Union Jacks are another design that we're thinking of trying.
The great thing about the kit is that you can follow the instructions to the letter or let your imagination run free and come up with some totally unique and personal designs. If you need more inspiration, you can download additional printable designs from the Interplay website.
The kit is designed for children aged 8+ and will need adult supervision to use the oven and maybe cut out the designs. Younger children could help out with colouring and drawing pictures on the plastic sheets for older children to transform into jewellery though.
star rating : 5/5
RRP : £9.99
Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.
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