Pinny Party -- Patterned Pins

 

• a private feud in which the members of the family of a murdered person seek to avenge the murder by killing the slayer or one of the slayer's relatives, especially such vengeance as once practiced in Corsica and parts of Italy.
  
• any prolonged and bitter feud, rivalry, contention, or the like: a political vendetta.
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Several weeks ago I set out on a quest.
The task I chose to conquer was seemingly one of simplicity. I saw this on Pinterest (my favorite place to go). Newspaper nails!

I was enthralled. Being great when it comes to using my hands to craft, but small of stature when it comes to crafting on my hands... I started to feel a storm in my brain.  My nails might be a bit to nubby for this fun bit of pinterest, but what about using an actual pin?



Several sleepless 'MUST PIN ALL THE THINGS' nights later. I discovered this bit of brilliance from 'The Hybrid Chic' Using a bit of paper and some rubbing alcohal she tagged all her nails striped and called it a day. So I decided this was the answer, and I was going to start crafting. It was going to be so BOSS. Oh yeah, I started on my favorite site of all time, Amber Ink. where you can easily buy patterned ipaper, for $1 (what's that you say??! Just $1??) print it from the comfort of your own home and have it in your hot little hands within the hour for all your instant gratification crafting needs.

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I decided to use their adorable swissdots in RED to make mini mushroom pins.  I love me some wild mushrooms. I even have a wild mushroom swimsuit. Thanks ModCloth.

 I knew I wanted the pins to be chubby on top and round as little baby cheeks.  I broke out the Sculpy and modeled myself some fat and phatt little bitty mushrooms. I took a pin or pea sized piece of bake-able clay and smashed it to the pin's head, wrapping it around the back of the pin, making sure to pinch it as close to the pin part of the pin as I could so that form would follow function. In combing NYC for the longest and best push pins for said purpose, I was happiest with Staples nickel plated thumb tacks.
I took an un-clayed pin and stabbed wider holes in the little berry strainer that my aunt got me for expanding my domestic goddess skills and better providing a way for me to catch me a man crafting. Making sure the tacks fit in the holes of something that can be put in the oven (no plastic ladies) ensures that you don't flatten their little pin heads when you put them in their temporary homes. An all metal cheese grater would work well here too.
Following Sculpy's advice I baked these little buddies at 275 degrees for 15 minutes and only forgot to use an oven mitt to get them out once. A+ gnarly burn mark, A+. Use a hot mitt!


I ran to Kinkos to print off said Wild Mushroom Dots (while my HP7000 is LEGIT - it is also LEJET - and not fit to run with a laser printer). I ran home to put them on my pins. I tried to make it work. I dipped them in rubbing alcohol, I painted rubbing alcohol on them, I sanded them to provide more of a tooth, I nail-polished them, I considered offering sacrifice to the Pinterest gods. I swore. I cried. I started over. I googled 'image transfers'. I bought some solvents. Nothing worked. It was then that the vendetta was born.

I Scarlett O'Hara crumpled on my studio floor. As god was my witness I would make this work. Hence the opening definition in this blog post. There was me and there were these pins. Vengeance would be mine.

Singing "Raindrops on Roses" at the top of my lungs I grabbed a box of Kleenex to dry my tears of rage.
I then turned to stare it square in its square. I wonder.....

In 'Crazy Ol' Maurice' fashion I grabbed a roll of glass tape. I cut it to be as close to the size of the Kleenex as possible. I held it not so very far from the sheet of tissue.

The Kleenex rose to the occasion, static clinging itself to the tape. I did this several times until I had a glass tape surface completely covering the square of Kleenex and smooth enough for a mouse to ice-skate on.


I smoothed out all the wrinkles and then cut off any dangling pieces of glass tape.  Using long pieces of scotch tape I secured the kleenex - soft side up, glass tape side down - along each of its sides. Making sure it was completely taped down like this:

Then I ran this badboy through my printer! That's right. You heard me. Was I scared? Hell yes I was scared. Was it worth it. Um... I can print on Kleenex. This is basically the craft version of taking the 'Free Your Mind' pill in the Matrix.

If you need help figuring out whether to put your type paper face up or face down look for this little page icon. If you have a rectangle with lines on it and a top corner dog-earred your printer wants you to put that Kleenex typing paper facing up.

If you have a little rectangle paper icon with a dog ear and no lines, it means put your Kleenex facing down.
You can get this mushroom top collection ready to download and print at www.AmberInk.com

After everything was said and done. I sat face to face with this beauty.

There will be random black smudges on your little squares because the Kleenex is so soft it actually cleans the heads of your printer. Don't worry about them. This process is so easy you're going to get at least six perfectly working squares a pop. Plus, I've found the more I do it the less dirty those print heads are.

Cut the little squares out. Peel the top layer of soft Kleenex from the bottom layer of glass taped tissue. I am dying to try this with 2ply paper towels....

Grab some coffee stirrers- the kind with two little holes on them. Put the thumb tack in the smaller hole. Marvel at how perfectly it fits! Run downstairs to "buy more coffee" from your local coffee vender. Ask him in a little voice to give you as many of those little stick things as he can.

I taped some to the inside of this little glass to make sure that they didn't bump in to each other while they were drying. Now you just paint the top with a q-tip covered in glue. Wipe off the excess glue so it's more tacky than wet. Too much glue is way worse than too little glue. Place the little scrap of the iPaper tissue on the tacky little top of your thumb tack.

Grapple the edges in a little pinched pouch not unlike the kind you'd tie to the end of a stick before jumping in to a boxcar.
Don't touch the top of the paper, ever. It's fragile up there. Just pinch the little bits of paper up under the tack and leave them there until your pin is done drying.
Once the little pins are dry. Cut off their tails using a pair of nail clippers or a small X-acto. Keeping them in their little straw stem, either dip them in to a small bit of epoxy or paint them with a bit of modge podge or clear nail polish.

Voila!

I got ten kinds of excited and came up with some-easy peasy packaging. Staples has foam-core with a grid on the back! Cut some out. Thanks be to my friend, Tim, I have learned you can sand foam-core. It is so boss. I sanded this bit in to a perfect square.  I printed a little row of mushrooms and bark.

You can grab it here now, at Amber Ink.

Wrap your foam-core up like a little present. Then press your pin babies in to its fleshy belly.

 

Get it awesome. I used double sided flash tape to secure the mushroom border to the foam core.

Write a note. The perfect gift for your tween to give her older sister, eh? eh?

 

Cuteness.

I've put everything I used up at www.AmberInk.com and you can make your own.

Now go start a band ;)

P.S. I did this all for the pinny party!
It's a weekly pinterest talent show over at Amber Inklings. Bring your paper crafts and play!
Come play next week, kk??