Forgot a gift for your dog loving friend?

Did you forget to buy any Christmas gifts for your dog loving friends? Or, perhaps you didn't have time to finish your Christmas shopping before Christmas.

Here's a perfect, thoughtful, fun gift: a homemade dog ID tag. 

I originally found this idea on Martha Stewart's Website, but after making a few from her template, I decided to design my own. If you're in a hurry, use the template off of Martha's Stewart's site. If you have some design skills, have a try yourself.

Here's what you need.

• Shrinky Dinks shrinkable plastic. I bought mine at Michaels. Look for the type that works with your printer. If you have a coupon for Michaels, this project will be even more economical. 
• Printer
• Hole punch
• Scissors (decorative to make these have more flair)
• Brown paper bag
• Cookie sheet
• Oven, conventional or convection

Directions:

Download or design your own template. I designed mine in Adobe Illustrator. The large tags were about 2.5" in diameter. Lighter colors seemed to work best.  Template designed in Adobe Illustrator
Print your template onto the Shrinky Dink plastic. Be sure to adjust your print settings to what's recommended by the printable plastic you're using.
Cut out the designs with regular or decorative scissors
BE SURE TO PUNCH HOLES IN THEM BEFORE BAKING (I had problems remembering this step). A regular hole punch will be sufficient.
Preheat the oven to the recommended temperature, between 275-325 degrees. I used 290 degrees.
Cut a grocery bag that is large enough for the cut tags. Place it on a cookie sheet and place the shrinky dink with the printed side up.
Bake for 3-5 minutes. The shrinky dink goes through a crazy transformation where it curls and then lays flat again. If the edges touch each other, you will not get them apart. This happened a few times for me when the oven temperature wasn't high enough.
Take the tags out of the oven and press flat. We used a notepad and pressed our weight on them for about 30 seconds. With a bit of luck, you'll have a cute, practical gift for your dog loving friends.