Shrink Film Backpack Charms

I’ve loved shrink film since I started crafting as a kid and have had so much fun using it to make projects with both my daughters. I can’t wait to teach “The Wonders of Shrink Film” with Grafix® at the Arizona Pinner’s Conference November 9-10 in Scottsdale, Arizona and share so much more about why I love crafting with shrink film. Personalized back to school supplies with charms were everywhere we shopped this year. My oldest daughter couldn’t quite decide which she liked most so we decided to make our own with Grafix® Shrink Film. We’ve used shrink film for so many crafting projects and jewelry but this is the first time we used it to personalize back to school supplies. Genius! We made pretty charms with the new artist series including flowers, butterflies, feathers, cactus and more. The film shrinks to 20% of its original size with heat and was so much fun to play with while we were getting ready to head back to school.

Bryan West from 12News visited my home office to make some personalized back to school supplies and we made these charms with a blow dryer instead of the oven. Watch our fun on the 12News Back to School segment!

The new Grafix® Shrink Film Artist Series features 12 unique pre-printed designs from 3 popular industry artists: Gina Lee Kim, Julie Fan-Fei Balzer, and Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk. They are available in 8.5×11” packs of 4 sheets containing 2 pre-printed sheets of the same style & 2 clear sheets (for tracing). Using the Artist Series made it easy for my daughter to find designs she liked already printed on the shrink film.

Shrink Film Backpack Charms Supplies

• Grafix® Shrink Film Artist Series
• permanent markers
• scissors
• hole punch
• lobster clasps
• jump rings
• needle nose pliers

Color your preferred charm designs. Cut out around the edges. Punch a hole in the top and bottom of charms that will be the top or middle of your backpack charm. Punch one hole in the top of the charm that will be the bottom of the stacked charms. If charm will not connect to others, simply punch one hole in the top of the colored shrink film design.

Preheat oven to 300º. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper of brown paper bag. We cut a piece of brown lunch bag to line our pan. Place colored shrink film charms on lined pan and put in oven for approximately three minutes. The shrink film will curl and appear distorted until the shrinking process is complete. Remove from oven when backpack charms have shrunk and are flat. Use a metal spatula to press down on charms if they are not completely flat when removed from the oven. They should be 20% of the original shrink film size.

Use needle nose pliers to connect charms with jump rings with a lobster claw on top.

Attach to the zipper pulls on your new backpack and favorite back to school supplies for fun personalization.

Do you have school supplies that would be perfect for personalization with shrink film backpack charms too?

Purchase tickets to the Arizona Pinner’s Conference with code BBB for 10% off your ticket price. 

Check out all the amazing speakers lined up at the Arizona Pinner’s Conference and get your ticket to join in the fun. I’ll be there teaching different ways you can use shrink film.

Learn more about Grafix® Shrink Film by connecting with Grafix® on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube.