How to Make Jibbitz! (Croc charms)

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Hey guys, it's Megan!

Now, I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that Crocs are making a comeback this summer.

They have a new style that kind of look like Birkenstock’s, and I thought they were actually kind of cute. Especially if you fill the holes with the charms that they make called “jibbitz”.

The problem with the official Jibbitz is that

1.) they’re expensive, and

2.) they don’t really have that many to chose from. At least they didn’t have many that I liked.

So, I decided to make my own!

There are TONS of options for making your own Jibbitz. The main thing you’ll need are these “Buckle Plastic Button Accessories for Shoe Charms” I got a set of clear ones on Amazon. They make black ones as well.

Click here to shop!

Normally I would have tried to make these pieces myself, but honestly it’s cheaper and easier to just buy them.

You'll also need a strong adhesive. I found that UV Resin or Gorilla 2 Part Epoxy worked the best (In the video I used E6000 glue, but I found out it wasn't quite strong enough)

The cheapest way to make Jibbitz is to use Shrinky Dinks.

I used the Rough and Ready and Printable Shrinky Dinks.

For the "Rough and Ready" Shrinky Dinks that you draw on, I went online and printed some images I wanted to use.

I put them in a Word Document, and made the images about 3 inches big.

Print the images on paper to trace.

They shrink to 1/3 of their original size, making the finished charms about 1 inch.

The Rough and Ready Shrinky Dinks have a rough side and a smooth side.

I put the smooth side up first, and outlined each image with a Posca paint pen.

I planned to outline on the smooth side and color them on the rough side.

What you use to color is up to you. I used Posca Pens and Ohuhu Alcohol Based Markers, but Sharpies, Colored pencils, and acrylic paint will work too.

When you’re finished coloring, cut everything out:

I learned that if you want to use Posca Pens to color anything more than an outline, you HAVE to do it on the rough side.

Half of the paint chipped off, it was bad...

I redid the flower and the butterfly, but this time I did all the coloring on the rough side of the plastic.

If you do it like this, Posca Pens work really well. The only thing that’s kind of annoying is that you have to let them dry in between each color.

Put a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet, and put your Shrinky Dinks on top.

Put them in the oven at 325 degrees F until they shrink and flatten out completely. If your Shrinky Dinks aren’t flat enough, you can press down on them with a book while they're still hot.

I covered each piece with some UV Resin to seal in the paint. If you don’t have resin, you can use Mod Podge, Mod Podge Dimensional Magic, or clear spray paint.

After the resin cured, I stuck a plastic piece to the back of each Shrinky Dink with Gorilla 2 Part Epoxy. You can also use UV Resin!

If you don’t feel like doing all that coloring, you can use printable Shrinky Dinks instead.

I put my images into a Word Document, and made each one about 3 inches tall. I set the picture transparency to 50 percent to lighten the images. The ink will get darker after baking.

Click here for the full details!

I printed everything out, and followed the same steps as before.

I didn’t realize that the ink doesn’t exactly dry right away - be careful when cutting them out!

Sorry Bob, that was not a happy accident...

Bake them at 325 until they flatten out, seal the top with some UV resin, glue on the back, and you’re all set!

Since there are only 14 holes, it's easy to make "themed" Jibbitz sets!

The EASIEST way to make jibbitz is literally just buying things to glue to the backs.

I made this set using gems from Hobby Lobby!

This method can be a little pricier than the Shrinky Dink method, but it takes about 5 seconds.

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and picked up some gems, sunflower buttons, and a little watch.

They were all 50 percent off, so they still ended up costing less than a “real” jibbitz charm.

For the buttons, I cut off the little bump on the back with scissors, then sanded off the rest to make the back flat.

I popped the center of each button out, put on some glue, then reattached it to make sure everything stayed together.

Then I used some more glue to stick on the back.

You can also make Jibbitz using polymer clay, resin, or anything else you can think of!

Click here to see how I made this polymer clay geode!

So here’s a look at all the jibbitz I made! This was such a fun project, and I can't wait to wear them this summer.

Eventually I want to make 14 random jibbitz of each color, so I’d have a set of red, blue, green, etc. to match with any outfit!

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