CD Pins
by Deborah "Sputnik" Koch

 

 

 

 

Materials (red abstract pin)

*A "junk" CD: (the type you get in the mail from online companies, etc.), DO NOT USE READ/WRITE CDs!!!
*Scissors (I use the plain orange-handled type)
*Heat gun
*Optional:   Safety goggles while cutting or breaking the CD (do not cut/break CDs while children, hubbies, or pets are nearby--CDs can shatter and go flying across the room!
*Rectangular Teflon cake pan or a foil-covered box lik (I bought an inexpensive Teflon cake pan at Wal-Mart and use it solely for craft purposes)
*Plastic spatula (panckae flipper, not a bowl scraper. Again, I bought a separate one for craft use only)
*Red permanent marker (I use Prismacolor, buy you can use whatever brand you have as long as it is permanent)
*Rubbing Alcohol
*Paper towels
*Black Crafter's Ink or black pigment ink
*Jade Powdered Pearls (or other green mica powders such as Pearl Ex, Fairy Dust, etc)
*Tiny Touch Applicators (from Suze Weinberg) *or* flat toothpicks
*Clear Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE)
*Two metal spoons (same type you eat your cereal with!)
*Gold embossing powder (any brand; NOT the ultra-thick)
*Dremel or other lightweight drill with 1/16'drill bit
*Scrap piece of thick styrofoam or a cardboard tube from paper towels or toilet paper
*Black Magic Marker (permanent ink)
*Ballpoint pen, pencil, or fine-point Sharpie marker
*Chipboard or cut-up cereal boxes
*1/16" round hole punch
*Gold Pen-Touch calligrapher's pen or gold Krylon leafing pen
*Wood/bamboo skewers or gold Krylon leafing pen
*Clear silicone sealant (or E-6000)
*Folded-up Kleenex, cotton facial pads, paper toweling, etc.
*Clothespins (squeeze type)
*Straight pins (sewing type)
*2 pairs of Needle-nose pliers
*Gold-colored jump rings
*Red Rocaille Beads (got mine in the craft sections at Wal-Mart)
*Brass fishing swivels (fishing section at Wal-Mart; any size is okay, but smaller may look better than larger

Directions

Fire up the heat gun.  Hold CD by the blades of your scissors and heat 15-20 seconds.  When warm cut CD into shapes.  You only need one, but you may like the look of one over the others, so cut a couple of them.

Scribble red marker on the CD in tight little circles.  It's okay if a little bit of silver shows.   If the ink is still kind of wet, zap it with the heat gun to dry.  Apply a little bit of alcohol onto a piece of paper towel, just enough so that the towel id damp, not sopping wet.  Gently dab the pape towel over dried red ink so that the alcohol will blend the ink a little and soften the harsh scribbled edges.  Once the ink has been blended with alcohol, smoosh on a little black crafter's ink on one side of the CD.

At this point, your black ink will be wet, take the jade powdered pearls and flick some directly onto the black ink.  After that, throw on some clear UTEE, and heat it until it melts. The clear UTEE is not going to want to melt on top of the green stuff, so take the tip of a spoon and just drag the molten UTEE over the top.  Continue to heat the entire CD until it is warm all over, and throw on more UTEE.  The surface of the CD may look pebbly at this point, which is okay.  If you have any air bubbles, pop them with the tip of the spoon.  Reheat the UTEE and flick on a little more green powder over the black part.  (it's okay if some gets in the red part) Reheat it again and add one more layer of UTEE. [In all, you should have up to 2 to 3 layers of clear UTEE on before we get to the next step.]

Heat the CD until the UTEE is molten, then throw on some gold embossing powder to the opposite side of the CD from where the black ink/green mica powder is, then melt the gold embossing powder.   Reheat the CD until the entire piece is molten, then throw on one last layer of clear UTEE, BUT (big but!) ONLY heat the clear UTEE *just* until it melts.  If you overheat it, you will loose that really cool effect of the clear UTEE sinking into the gold embossing powder.

Once the UTEE is cool enough to handle, you need to fire up your drill.  Add three little holes into one end.  [You don't have to drill holes if you don't want any danglies; they still look great on their own]  Optional:  Reheat the drill holes just until the embossing powder slumps around them.  This can be risky because you can loose the texture on the gold embossing powder.

Lay the pin on top of the piece of chip board and trace around it.  If you have drilled holes, be sure to stick your pin in the holes to "trace" them too.  Once you have finished tracing, set the chip board aside for a moment.

Take the black Magic Marker and scribble it all over the back side of the pin.  After the back of the CD is blackened, take your gold leafing pen.  After the back of the CD is blackened, take your gold leafing pen and go around all the edges of the CD with it.

Back to the chip board.  Cut it out with scissors and cut about 1/16 inside of the traced line.   After it's cut out, punch out any holes you have marked.  Do a test fit of the piece of chipboard against the back of the CD.  If the CD piece is not completely flat due to warping (it happens often) try to bend the chipboard into approximately the same shape.

Color the chipboard with black Magic Marker, just the edges and the back side that will face out.   Once that is done, squeeze out some silicone sealer or E6000 and apply it to the entire back side of the chipboard.  The sealant is pretty forgiving.  You can mush the chipboard into place repeatedly if necessary.  Once it is in place, protect the UTEE side with a paper towel or something, then clamp the CD to the chipboard with a few clothespins.  After the clothespins go on, double-check the drilled holes to make sure they are not clogged.  If they are clogged, you can clear them with a straight pin or a clay poker tool.  It takes 24 hrs. befor sealant cures completely, but you can continue working fairly shortly.

Jump Rings

Selecting the beads to go on the jump ring can be tricky.  Hold a  jump ring with one pair of pliers, bend back the other end, and try to fit a bead on.  The innards of the beads aren't all uniform inside.  What you need to do is slide a bead on, then ad a fishing swivel to the jump ring and *then* close the jump ring back up.  You will need to make three sets of jumpring/bead/fishing swivels.

Attach a pin back with sealant or E6000

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Copyright 2005-2006 Jacqueline Fitzgerald Graham
Last revised: April 09, 2006.
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