DIY Pin Tutorial using the Silhouette

You all know I love my Silhouette CAMEO and all the projects I can create with it. I also love challenging its capabilities. Today I have a tutorial for you showing how to make these pins using the Silhouette. It’s so easy and simple and you can involve the kids too, which is always a plus.

How to make your own pins

Supplies Needed:

Shrink Film
Silhouette or scissors
extra fine sandpaper
spray paint
E6000
pin backs

Step 1: Load your shrink film on your cutting matte. Cut out your shapes using a sharp blade on Silhouette. I set my blade to a ten and used the double cut feature. This cut through the material enough to bend and pop the shapes out. I also tried doing the two round of the double cut (4 times cutting total) and that was enough to cut all the way through it. When cutting your shapes, keep in the mind that they will shrink to half their size when cooked in step 2.

Step 2: Follow the directions on the back of the package to cook your shrink film in the over or toaster over. I cooked mine at 325 degrees farenheit, for about 5 minutes. It was a little longer than the package recommended, but my shaped were pretty large.

Step 3: As they are cooking they curl up almost into a ball. Don’t panic. It’s supposed to do this. Somehow they miraculously flatten back out. When your plastic shapes are flat on the pan, then they are complete and can be take out of the oven. If there is still a slight curve to some, place a pan on top of the pins and press down on them to flatten. This must be done immediately after they come out of the over while they are still hot.

On the left is the shape before cooking, and on the right if the shape after. It’s so tiny and adorable!

Step 4: You can color on the film with permanent marker before it is cooked to make your design. I chose to spray paint them gold after cooking, instead of drawing on them. Using an extra fine sandpaper, I believe mine is 400 grit, sand it side of the plastic to give the paint something to stick to.

In this image you can the see the difference between the unsanded part on the left, and the sanded side on the right.

Step 5: Apply some E6000 adhesive to the pin back and adhere it to your shape. I didn’t want to have to worry about my pin popping off so I used a lot of adhesive. I figured no one will see the back of the pin while wearing it anyway, right?

Press the glued pin back firmly on the back of you plastic shape and let dry for about 24 hours.

Step 6: Spray paint the pin your color of choice and allow to completely dry before handling and wearing. You can spray paint your shape before you put the pin back on, but I wanted my metal pin back to be the same color as the pin, so I chose to glue it on before spray painting.

I’m at Snap Conference this weekend passing out these pins on my business cards with a little tutorial and amazing giveaway from Silhouette. If you’re at Snap, come find me, grap a pin and be entered to win a Silhouette CAMEO and a Silhouette Portrait. So much fun!