Skip to main content

Styrofoam Tray Shrink Art

Making styrofoam shrink art was one of those fun childhood memories I have from being a kid.  My mom would clean off the meat or veggie trays from the grocery store, give it to us kids to draw on, then we would watch in awe as our creations shrunk before our very eyes in the oven.


I really wanted to do the same thing with my kids so I (silly-me) tried to find a tutorial of the sort on the Internet.  I did this mostly because I didn't know the temperature the oven needed to be or how long it should be in there.  Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't find one!  The closest thing I found was this website, but there were no pictures or anything.  I decided to wing it - it couldn't be that hard, right?


And, yes, this craft is super easy.  First, I gave the boys a clean tray and a bunch of markers for them to draw with.


I had to convince them to color a lot since they were only making small markings.


We put their creations on an aluminum-covered baking sheet, and put it in the oven at 350 degrees.


They shrunk really fast!  It was only about two minutes.  The styrofoam curled up, but once I pulled it out, I was able to flatten it without too much trouble.  I was actually surprised that it wasn't that hot.


Here is what they looked like when they came out.  The boys thought it was great.




Next time I do this (since I always seem to have these trays in my house), I think I'll try to make them into ornaments.  I'll need to make a big hole in the styrofoam since it will shrink a lot and then try to thread ribbon through it.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

  1. Nate BOctober 12, 2011 at 12:00 PM

    Fun! I remember doing that too.

    Can't you just make the hole after its shrunk?

    ReplyDelete
  2. AlishaOctober 12, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    No, the styrofoam is really hard once it shrinks. I think you would crack it if you managed to make a hole in it at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElizabethNovember 11, 2011 at 10:04 PM

    Okay, now I totally want to do this with Caleb. But I'm wracking my brain, I don't think anything I buy comes on styrofoam. I buy my meat in plastic wrap tubes...I'm going to have to keep my eyes out, maybe some veggies...if not I'll get some styrofoam plates or cups just for this. It would be worth it. I did this with cups for a Christmas tree ornament (that I never ended up making): you were supposed to shrink them, then spray paint them black to make a hat for a snowman (which you make out of a lightbulb); you stick on "googly eyes" and a carrot nose out of orange felt or something, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AlishaNovember 11, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    I saw a craft idea similar to yours for the styrofoam cups - except instead of a snowman it was a pilgrim hat. Thanksgiving idea, perhaps?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How I'm Approaching... Geometry

N will be taking Geometry this year.  A Little Bit of Background His last year was split between taking his first semester of Algebra I at the local middle school as an 8th grader and his second semester being homeschooled. Khan Academy was a fantastic resource for him to make sure that he didn't have any gaps in his learning. We also used IXL to supplement. He took a math diagnostic right when we started homeschooling, and then took the personalized lessons to make sure he wasn't missing anything from even earlier math. N likes math, but it isn't an obsession for him like it is for his brother. I'm a huge fan of the Art of Problem Solving's courses especially since we loved their elementary series, Beast Academy, when they were younger. However, AoPS is extremely rigorous and expensive if you take their online courses, so they are better suited for students who want to focus a lot of their attention on math. However, they do have a FREE online learning platform for...
Post a Comment
Read more

About Me

  Hello! Welcome to my blog. What you will find here are my attempts at sorting through my ideas and implementation of homeschool curriculum and activities that I have pursued with my own two boys. The Beginning I began this blog in 2008 when my oldest was only a year old. It began as a family blog chronicling our adventures as a young family in Seattle. We decided early on that we wanted to homeschool our two sons. Honestly, now, I don't remember why we decided to do that, but we did it nevertheless. We began teaching our children as soon as they could walk and talk. We made many mistakes along the way and so learned to follow the lead of our children in what they were interested in. We focused on delight-directed learning with a lot of outings and fun things to do. When things got rough, we learned to adapt and switch things out. Moving To Thailand In 2015, our family moved to Thailand. We started another blog for our time there, but alas it was not a good fit for us. We had int...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mexico Week

Overview of Mexico Videos 10 Facts about Mexico  (we skipped the folklore section) Flag Worksheet Children Just Like Me  book Map Coloring Page Geo-Puzzle America Food: Tortillas and Salsa! Pyramids Mexico Pyramids Pyramid Book Make a Lego Pyramid Art: Make an  Ojo de Dios  (this was a HUGE hit) Frida Kahlo How to Draw Frida Kahlo Body Cast Printable Art History Lesson and Printable Things we didn't do at school, but could be fun: Make  Aztec Hot Chocolate Tons of resources here Mexico Unit Study Math: Mayan Numbers  The Dawn of Numbers Mayan Counting Worksheet Science:  Monarch Butterfly Migration Life Cycle and Migration to Mexico Song Monarch Butterfly Release Butterfly Symmetry Art More Mayan Info: Hour long video on Mayan Code  by NOVA Mayan Glyphs explained Mayan Math Game Archaeology Game featuring the Mayans Another game (costs money) with a lot of worksheets ...
Post a Comment
Read more