We Made Shrinky Dinks!

Caitlin and I decided to try and make our own Shrinky Dinks. Why? Well I want to paint on something that I can insert into resin with ease. So, I was browsing around the Bing search engine and found that you can make Shrinky Dinks using recycled plastic. You can find the full instructions both on Ehow and Instructables. One website said use #5 plastic and one said #6. Well I had no idea what they were talking about, but apparently all plastics have a triangle on them, and in the triangle is a number. I have no idea what a Pepsi bottle is because I could not read the number. We had no #6 at all, we had a lot of ones, a two and a bunch of fives. The #1's definitely seemed too flimsy. The 2 was a bit stiff, but was a nice green color. I was going to try it but I decided to recycle that bottle into a new watering can. So we had a Pepsi bottle with no recognizable number and some 5's. So, we removed the labels, cleaned and dried, and then cut off small oval pieces of plastic. The Pepsi bottle I carved out the whole center, leaving the top and bottom intact, and made it into a new bird feeder for the smaller birds. So, then using glitter, some permanent marker, and acrylic paint we painted on the pieces of plastic. Caitlin painted on the #5 a dog face. I painted on the Pepsi bottle plastic a heart and a bear holding a heart. Caitlin also painted on the Pepsi plastic, but she covered the whole piece of plastic with paint. She made an ocean and a horse on grass. Then we put them on aluminum foil and set them in the 200 degree oven. The Pepsi plastic shrunk immediately and I mean immediately. Caitlin's were towards the back and immediately folded into something unusable. My two were towards the front and I could salvage the bear, the heart I am still not sure if I can use it.  I trimmed up the Teddy Bear, image not shown, and I hope I can use it.   The #5, the one that was recommended did not shrink at all. We even left it in longer and it did absolutely nothing at all. So, if I can find #6 plastic I may try this again. Painting on plastic is smooth and nice, nicer than glass in the texture. But, I will also be trying translucent photo paper to paint on in small pieces. I can paint on my acrylic paper, but it is not translucent and I really want translucent. So, my experiments continue. I do not like painting on the resin itself, at all.