How to Make Shrinky Dinks from Materials You Have at Home

I always loved Shrinky Dinks, because they seem kind of magical. Put the plasticy material in the oven and it shrinks, but your image still looks pretty much the same as when you made it in larger form.

Did you know you can make shrink plastic from materials you’re probably throwing out right now?

Get all the details on the right plastic to use and how to use it to make your own shrinking projects at Little Sprouts Learning. The post talks about using them for Valentine’s Day projects, but they’d make a great Earth Day project, or when you just need something to do on a summer day or any other time.

[Photo: Little Sprouts Learning.]

Looking for some books to pair with these crafts? Check these out.

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Celebrate Earth Day with Kids

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.

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