Knowing how to make pins comes in really handy as a creative outlet, unique accessory, and personal gift. Pins are cool pieces of art that you can carry around with you, and they can sustain a lot of wear and tear without breaking. Whether you want to promote an event, express your creativity, or otherwise, once you have a great design the rest of the process of pin-making is easy!
Supplies
- Shrink plastic – found individually or as a part of a crafting kit; if you want the option to make clear pins, make sure you buy transparent shrink plastic. Once you heat up this type of plastic, it will harden and shrink.
- Multi-color permanent markers, paint, paint pens, etc – anything you want to use to give the pins some color (avoid crayons and coloring pencils)
- Pin backs – just glue these onto the back of your pin; you can use any type of strong glue, but E6000 crafting glue is recommended
- Dimensional Magic – gives your pin a really nice, shiny, smooth finish (optional)
- An oven or a toaster oven
- Scissors
- A black permanent marker
- A pan, tray, anything flat and metallic that you can use to flatten the pin
Step-by-Step
- Draw your design onto the shrink plastic. Keep in mind that the plastic will shrink the image to 1/3 of its original size, so draw it 3x bigger than you want the final product to be.
- Use paint, permanent markers, etc to color on the side of the shrink plastic that you drew the outline on (so once you flip it over, the outline of your drawing still visible). Paint will produce a more opaque finished look, while permanent markers will create a stained-glass effect. The paint won’t be opaque at first – don’t worry about it! Once the pin shrinks you’ll have solid colors.
- Wait for the colors to dry and cut out the pin.
- Preheat your oven to 325oF. Place your design onto a tray and place it inside the heated oven. You’ll see the plastic begin to fold and shrink. Take the pin out shortly after it stops shrinking and moving; you don’t want to wait to long, or it will burn and turn yellow.
- Use a flat, metal object, such as a baking tin, to flatten the pin immediately after you take it out of the oven.
- Glue the backs onto your pins, and if you want to you can add a layer of Dimensional Magic on top. I ran out, so unfortunately this optional step won’t be included in the photos.
- Congratulations! You just made a pin!
