Can you bake with construction paper?

Question

I'm trying to do shrink art and my friend said that you can use construction paper for baking. Can you put construction paper on a cookie sheet, put the shrink art on it, and bake it in the oven? Will the paper burn up?

Answer 1

parchment paper will work well at most of your oven temps.  It is used for cooking often.  It is  a good non stick surface.

Construction paper is more "cardboardy" and I would also be concerned about the colorants.  Otherwise, you can give it try as long, as you aren't going over about 375-400 range.  It will start to turn brown, if you leave it in there long enough (15-20 mins)

I usually stick with parchment paper or aluminum foil for this kind of thing.

Be sure to have the house well ventilated - the last time I did shrink art, it smelled pretty strongly.

Answer 2

Paper and paper products (cardstock, cardboard, etc.) won't burn until they reach 451 degrees Fahrenheit (in fact, "Fahrenheit 451" is the name of a famous novel about book burning).  

Usually, colored papers are fine to that temp too.  

It's unlikely, but possible, that you could have problems with paper-products that have been painted (like cereal box cardboard) in that the paint could darken, but most likely the painting would only cause the cardboard to warp in too much heat (in effect, the side the paint is on would shrink).  

So paper is fine for shrink plastic, but more often something stiffer is used so that everything can be put in and taken out of the oven easily... something like matt board, or even an index card, or a smooth unfinished wood board, or even a terracotta tile (or the back of a ceramic tile). You don't want anything that has an uneven surface  though since it's possible the shrink plastic could end up not completely lying flat in the final moment.

It's often suggested to put a bit of cornstarch on the heating surface too just to keep any part of the shrink plastic from sticking to the heating surface.  You could also use parchment paper, I guess, since it's often coated with silicone (and nothing sticks to silicone), but again that kind of paper can be floppy or not lie completely flat.

HTH,

Diane B.