1.

Open or create your designs in Silhouette Studio®. Resize them. Keep in mind that a baked piece will be approximately three times smaller than a printed one, as shown below.

2.

Add a circle to each design for the jump rings to go through. If you are using shrink plastic for the first time, add a couple of extra designs that you can use as test items. Also, make sure to turn on the registration marks (found in the Page Setup panel).

3.

Feed the shrink plastic sheet into your home printer. If you are using the white shrink plastic, print on the matte side. If you are using the clear shrink plastic, print on the side with no Silhouette watermark.

4.

Tip: Print your design using the low-quality printing settings to prevent the designs from printing too dark. After baking the plastic, the printed colors will be a couple of shades darker than what was originally printed, so for the best results, the colors of the design should be lightened.

5.

Place the printed sheet on your mat and feed it into your Silhouette machine.

6.

In the Send panel, choose Shrink Plastic as your material type. Make sure your Silhouette machine will just cut out the outline and the inside circle of your shapes. Adjust your blade if necessary and send your cut job to your Silhouette machine. After cutting the designs, remove the designs from the cutting mat.

7.

Preheat the oven to 290–325° F (140–160° C). We suggest testing your oven first by using a test piece to find the right temperature to bake the shrink plastic.

8.

If you use the clear shrink plastic, remove the Silhouette-branded liner and place the shapes printed side up onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. If you use white shrink plastic, place the printed shapes printed side up onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. The baking process takes approximately two minutes. Watch as the piece shrinks (it will curl and move and then lay flat again). The shapes will be much smaller and thicker than the shapes you started with. When you see that your piece is flat (or almost flat if you bake a bigger piece), quickly but carefully remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Right away, gently press the piece flat using a flat tool. You have a couple of seconds to flatten the piece because the plastic cools down pretty quickly. The piece may stay slightly curled if you don’t flatten it fast enough.

9.

Remove the piece from the cookie sheet, and repeat the process with each piece you have. Add the jump ring to the tag using plyers.