Colorful Shrink Plastic Buttons! - featuring Elmer's products

[Mountains and Clouds]

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Colorful Shrink Plastic Buttons! - featuring Elmer's products

Colorful buttons can add a special touch to any project, and they're easy to make using Elmer's Paint Pens and shrink plastic!



What You'll Need:

• Elmer's Painters Markers
• Shrink Plastic
• Sharp Scissors (such as X-ACTO Precision Tip)
• Hole punch

Start by cutting large-ish circles out of the shrink plastic. (About 2.5 times bigger than you want your buttons to end up!) If you want your buttons to be consistent in size and shape, it's a good idea to make a stencil or find something to trace.  

I wanted varied buttons that didn't need to be perfectly round, so I just went with whatever the scissors did!

Then, use the hole punch to make holes in your button.



Use the Elmer's Painters pens to color the buttons however you want.  If you want an opaque look, you can color the whole thing!  (I like when there is some transparency.)  I think it's fun to color on both sides to create dimension when the plastic shrinks.  (Try not to make the paint too thick -- it puffs up a little bit when it bakes!)



They are super-addicting to make....



Then, stick 'em on a foil-covered pan and put them in the oven (as per package instructions) for 3 minutes.  I like to use the little toaster oven because it heats up really fast without using too much extra energy!



I ended up making lots of these, kind of by accident.  Anyone want some buttons? : )




Here are some of my favorites:


Alright, off to make more buttons!!

[sweets4ever]

These look highly addictive, which means I need to make them.   Now.

[alwaysinmyroom]

These are fantastic!  Looks like something that is fairly easy to get kids involved as well!

Love the colorful markers!

[batgirl]

That's just ingenious! Are they sturdy enough for clothes?

[Knickertwist]

Soooo much fun. I want to make a million of them!

[LimeRiot]

I can definitely see myself getting addicted to making these . I have shrink paper and paint pens at home. If you don't see me for a few days, you'll know why!

[Aislynn]

This is absolutely brilliant!  And they're firm enough to use as buttons?

That's fantastic!

[MissingWillow]

I'm so trying this..!

[kaz814]

These are adorable!  I've made a few of these, but I haven't used the paint pens.  I have got to try it with them - they are SO addictive!  Awesome job.

[Mountains and Clouds]

I've always found shrunk shrink plastic to be very sturdy; however, I guess if you use these buttons on clothes, be careful when you wash and don't use heat or the dryer, since they might get squishy and bend a little!