From Salad to Shrinky Dinks

It must be fond childhood memories or just the magic of watching plastic twist, bend, shrink and flatten out again. Either way Shrinky Dinks were one of those things I seem to be able to vividly remember from my childhood and hope to share with my children when the get a little older. Which is probably why I got a bit excited today when I found a DIY Shrinky Dinks blog on how to do your own with recycled take out dishes. He uses Clean #6 Plastic (common in cold deli take out containers & recyclable in only some areas), permanent markers, aluminum foil and an oven (or heat gun) to make his own Shrinky Dinks in just 3.5 minutes at 350°. So yet another cool (or is it hot) craft which can use stuff slated for the landfill. Even if you can recycle #6 (polystyrene) in your area you can always make it into a fun gift tag, cell phone dangle, zipper pull, etc and recycle it latter when it gets worn out.