Make Beaded Shrinky Dink Keychains With Your Preschooler

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How do you make friends? I wish I could make friends like my three year old. Every time we go to any sort of play area she ends up having an elementary age girl playing with her by the end. The other day we went to the park and a girl walked up and offered her a bead necklace. And then they became fast friends and followed each other all over the playground. This necklace ended up being the inspiration for making these Shrinky Dink keychains.

A few days later, I wanted to make something with Shrinky Dinks. My daughter almost immediately asked me to make a heart with it for one of her church friends. That quickly turned into make lots of hearts for all of her friends. I wanted to turn the Shrinky Dink hearts into something easier to keep track of and my daughter loves beads. So, I was able to convince her to make them into beaded keychains.

We have made several fun things with Shrinky Dinks. My daughter is always very excited when they come out. We have made mini books, a garden pinwheel, and a Father’s Day frame. Using Shrinky Dinks is a great way to make something functional and cute before your child can draw recognizable pictures. And using it continues being fun forever.

How to Make Beaded Shrinky Dink Keychains With a Preschooler

Materials:

• Shrink Plastic (you can also use #6 plastic)
• Hole Punch
• Colored Pencils or Permanent Markers
• Bracelet Cord
• Pony Beads
• Assorted Keychain Findings

Making the Shrinky Dinks:

First, we made all of the heart Shrinky Dinks that my daughter asked for. I cut out a heart shape that I liked from paper and used it as a template on the shrink plastic. Remember that it will shrink, so make them big. My daughter wanted hearts, but make whatever shape your kid wants. I’ll spoil the ending of this craft and tell you that we have since made circles and my daughter wants to do triangles next.

Next, I rounded the bottom to get rid of all the sharp edges. Then, I used a hole punch to punch a hole in the top to add the beaded keychain later. After all of her hole punch practice in her H is for horse craft, my daughter probably could have done this step.

As I cut out the hearts, I gave them to my preschooler along with colored pencils. If you are using colored pencils, you need to make sure they color on the rough side of their Shrinky Dink film. You could also risk using permanent markers which they could color on both sides with. My daughter colored on each one and then “wrote” the name of each friend on the top.

Then, it is time to stick the Shrinky Dink hearts in the oven. They will only take a couple minutes to bake. Follow the instructions on your shrink plastic for temperature and time. They also don’t take long to cool, so you can keep making your keychains.

Making the Keychain:

After you let the heart pendants cool, you can start making them into keychains. I cut bracelet cord into approximately 10 in long pieces. You can cut them longer or shorter to allow for more or less beads. Just make sure you have enough extra to tie it off at the end. Then, I had my daughter string a Shrinky Dink heart onto the cord and pull it into the middle.

Now it was time to put beads on the Shrinky Dink keychains. We folded the cord in half with the heart at the bottom. My daughter struggled getting beads over both ends of the cord, so I taped them together. This made it easier to string on beads and kept the two sides even.

Then, my daughter strung on whatever color and number of beads she wanted to as long as she left some room on the end. If your child enjoys this step, check out our other bead crafts.

Then, she choose a keyring and a lanyard clip and handed it all to me. Any sort of jewelry findings will work. You can even use this tutorial from the Frugal Crafter to make your own. I tied the keyring on to the end of the keychain and then stuck a lanyard clip on the end.

We continued putting on a heart, adding tape, putting on beads, and finishing with a keyring until we finished all of the Shrinky Dink keychains. Then, I gave my preschooler a little bag to put her friendship keychains in. This let her carry them to pass them out herself the next Sunday morning.

Conclusion of My Daughter’s Friendship Shrinky Dink Keychains:

My daughter was so excited to give her Shrinky Dink keychains away. She kept going and looking at them all week long in anticipation. She had 5 kids and 2 adults all picked out that she wanted to give them to. Come Sunday morning and after Bible class she handed out a few. Then after worship, I let her loose to give them to whoever she wanted. She ended up giving them to 4 of the original kids, one different kid, and two adults she never talks to. She was so excited and immediately started asking to make more.

We have since made a bunch more circle ones, but haven’t handed them out yet. She wants to make triangles next. So, I think it is safe to say that they were a huge hit. And I loved that they were simple and encouraged her to make things to give others.