The Wine Charms My Kids Made That Guests Keep Taking Home

This craft was born the way most of our best ones are: by accident. We had run out of wine charms one summer night and the kids were already in craft mode. I believe we had just discovered paint pens and were trying them out on everything in sight. Then I spotted the shrink film, and the inspiration for wine charms was born. What followed was a year of shrink crafts. It started with wine charms. Summer dinner and random doodles. Halloween wine charms with goblins? Check. Thanksgiving? Check. Christmas? Obvi. We still have a bunch of the charms. Right after this we moved on to making luggage tags, but that is a post for another day.

If you’ve never used shrink film, here is the magic in one sentence: you color a design on a sheet of special plastic, bake it for about three minutes, and it curls up like it’s ruined and then settles flat, shrunk down to about a third of its original size. It also comes out thick, hard, and surprisingly sturdy, more like a little glossy tile than a piece of plastic. I filmed it through the oven door so you can see it happen. The curl is the part where everyone screams. Hold your nerve, it flattens.

This is also about the cheapest party craft we make. One pack of film turns into dozens of charms, and everything else is probably already in your craft bin.

Here is what you need: shrink film, fine sandpaper, a black Sharpie for outlines, paint pens or colored pencils, scissors, a hole punch, small rings, parchment paper, and a toaster oven or regular oven. Letter beads are a fun addition if you want to personalize each charm with a name or initials.

One honest note before you start: this is not a craft for young children. The film can give a papercut-like injury if you’re not careful, and cutting the shapes takes dexterous hands. Once baked, these tiny things are choking hazards, so do not leave them around babies or toddlers. No one wants to tell the story about removing a champagne cork wine charm from a toddler’s nose. Not a good story. This one is for the older kids, with a grown-up on oven duty.

First, sand. Sand the film lightly with fine sandpaper so the color has something to grab. We prefer paint pens, and they need that sanded surface, and so do colored pencils. I have found that all shrink film performs better with sanding, but you can try permanent markers with no sanding and that can work depending on the type of film you have.

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Then draw and color. Go big, roughly three times the size you want the finished charm, because it shrinks that much. Outline in Sharpie, fill with the paint pens, and don’t stress about perfect. The shrinking tightens everything up and makes even scribbly coloring look intentional.

Cut and punch before you bake. Cut out each shape and punch the ring hole now, while the plastic is thin and soft. Once it bakes it turns hard and thick and you will not get a punch through it. Ask me how I know.

Bake. Set the oven around 325. Line a metal tray with parchment, lay a few charms down with space between them, and lay a second piece of parchment on top so nothing sticks to itself mid-curl. Two to three minutes. They will curl, twist, and look like a disaster, and then they will settle flat. Wait for flat before you open the door. If one comes out with a little wave, press it gently under a flat-bottomed glass while it’s still warm. They’re hot straight out of the oven, so the grown-up handles this part and everyone else watches the show through the door.

Last, turn them into charms. Thread a ring through the punched hole and loop it around the stem, and slide a few letter beads onto the ring if you want names or initials on each one. For stemless glasses, we stick the charm right to the glass with a removable glue dot, low on the side where lips never go.

The charms are little portraits of whoever made them that year, and that’s why this became a tradition. Guests pick their charm at the door, defend it all evening, and usually take it home. The kids get to watch the adults genuinely delight over something they drew at the kitchen counter. That is the whole brand of thing we’re after around here.

So dig out the toaster oven and let them doodle. We’d love to see what your crew comes up with.

If this gave you an idea worth trying, there’s more where it came from. Follow along on Pinterest (@CraftandBondCo) and Instagram (@craftandbondco) for new projects, recipes, and the occasional honest mess, and save this post so you can find your way back to it.