How to easily create your own pins

How to easily create your own pins


I’ve always been a fan of pins. As an elder teen until my mid-20s, my chosen “uniform” was a pair of jeans, a button-down shirt, and a blazer with a pin on the lapel. I loved being able to subtly (or not so subtly) add a personal touch to an outfit while showing my love for nerd culture.

Over the course of my art journey, I’ve been fortunate enough to create my own enamel pins, and while I love them to pieces, the process of getting custom enamel pins made is slow and expensive.

Click here to read my blog breaking down all the costs associated with enamel pins.

While scrolling through social media one evening, I saw a reel of someone making plastic charms using shrink plastic, and a light bulb went off! I did some research and tested the process, and in this blog post, I’ll be sharing with you how to easily create your own custom pins at home!

Pros and Cons of making pins at home

Before we get to the material list, I want to outline some of the pros and cons of making pins at home, vs getting pins manufactured. 

Pro: Cost-effective

It's much less expensive to get started making pins using shrink plastic, compared to enamel pins. You don't need to pay the upfront cost to get a mould made, or for each colour used, and you don't need to pay a hefty shipping fee. All you need is a decent printer, some pin hardware, and some UV resin.

Pro: Small batches

Another massive plus to making pins this way is that you don't need to order at least 50 pins at once. You can create a single pin as a display pin, then make them as orders roll in. This lets you be more free and experiment with new ideas, without worrying about the financial risks.

Pro: Faster production time

Another great thing about creating pins at home, is that you can get a batch made very quickly, bringing a design to life in under an hour. 

Pro: An adaptable process

The steps detailed below can be used to create pins, keyrings, jewellery, magnets, and more, all from the same artwork! This adaptability lets you work smarter, not harder.

Con: You become the factory

The biggest drawback to this process is that you are responsible for every step along the way. Shrink plastic is brittle, and the ink can chip and flake until it gets sealed. Every time you make a mistake like this, you unfortunately lose that pin, and your unit price goes up.

You also end up spending your time creating pins, when you could be creating more art, or doing other important tasks for your small business. It only takes one flurry of orders to risk becoming overwhelmed.

What you need to create handmade pins

  • Shrink Plastic. Make sure it's the printable kind, is the right size for your printer, and is white. 
  • UV Resin. I started with a kit from Amazon which contained 2 bottles of resin, a UV lamp, and silicone tools. You can use 2 part resin, but for small batches, a UV-reactive resin is perfect.
  • UV Lamp. To cure the resin
  • Protective gloves. For use when using resin.
  • Pin findings. There are different types of findings you can get, with different types of clutches. 
  • Heat gun (Optional). I bake my charms in the oven, but you can also use a heat gun
  • Die cutting machine (optional). I used a Silhouette Cameo 4 to cut my charms out of the shrink plastic, but a pair of scissors also does the job.

How to make homemade pins

1. Prepare the artwork

First, take your completed artwork, and save a copy at 75% opacity. This will be important when we shrink our charms.

I also increase the thickness of the border on my artwork, so I don't end up with a white edge to my pins.

2. Set up your cutting machine (Optional)

If you are using a Cricut, or a Cameo to make your handmade pins, you will now put your artwork into the software. When it comes to sizing your artwork, you will need to experiment with your particular shrink plastic. Most shrink plastic reduces by around 60%, but until you bake your particular sheets, you won't know how yours behaves.

I give each charm 2 identical cut lines, one slightly deeper than the other. Shrink plastic is notoriously difficult to cut on these machines, so again, trial and error is the name of the game.

3. Print your charms

Print your charms using the same settings as you would for stickers, but make sure you put the shrink plastic into your print with the matte side facing up. Once printed, carefully remove the sheet from your print tray and leave it to fully dry if needed. The last thing you want to deal with is smudged ink.

4. Cut your charms out

If you are cutting your charms out by hand, grab a sharp pair of scissors and carefully cut out your charms. The material is fairly brittle, so take your time to avoid ruining any of your prints.

If you are using a cutting machine, load up and cut out your charms. As previously mentioned, the material is dense, and even after 12 passes on my machine, the plastic still isn't cut, but thankfully, the line cut is deep enough for me to manually pop the charms out of the sheet. 

If you find yourself in this situation too, remember to take your time, and slowly pop the charms out. The material can still tear, and I lost a few pins while I was getting to grips with how much pressure was needed.

5. Shrink your charms

Now is the fun part. Apply heat to your charms and watch them shrink down! I prefer using an oven at 180C because the heat is more even, but a heat gun will also do the trick (you can see the heat gun in action in the video version of this blog). 

When heat is applied, the edges of your charm will curl up and in, and then the centre will shrink down too. As this shrinking occurs, the ink will intensify on your pins. This is why we printed our artwork at 75% opacity. You may feel like once they've reduced in size, your pins are too dark. If this is the case, just reduce the opacity slightly more, until you hit that sweet spot.

After a couple of minutes of heat, the plastic will have finished reducing in size. At this stage, I take them out of the oven, and press the charm down with a baking tray, to ensure it's flat.

6. Apply a resin topcoat

Put on a pair of gloves and set up a resin station in a well-ventilated area. Apply a coat of resin to your charms before placing them under a UV lamp.

I like to put a thick layer of resin on, to really get that domed appearance, but it's a personal preference - do what you feel comfortable with.

7. Add the pin post

Next, using another layer of resin, attach a pin post to the back of your pin, and cure the resin.

8. Add a backing card (optional)

Finally, I attach the pin to a backing card, and it's ready to be added to my store.

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I hope you found this guide helpful, if you have any questions, drop me a comment on one of my social channels, and I'll do my best to help you!

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