DIY: Turn Any Shaped Stickers Into Reusable Resin Pins!

 I'm not a big pin collector, but I recently fell for this new Star Wars set at Disney:

Trouble is, it's $30. THIRTY DOLLARS. Nope nope nope.

In fact, there are a lot of new Star Wars pins with awesome designs:

Single pins start around $8 each.

 pics via Disney Pin Blog

So imagine my delight when, just a few days later, I spotted this $3 sticker book at Big Lots (yes, Big Lots) with stickers of every single new pin design:

Jackpot!!

(I couldn't find this exact book on Amazon, but here's a similar, more expensive version that appears to have the same stickers.)

So I bought the stickers, broke out some old resin from Little Windows, and made my OWN pins:

 

Ta-daa!

The process is surprisingly easy, and yields sturdy plastic pins with a beautiful, pillowy dome on top:

 

Now, you KNOW you have stickers laying around the house that you want to turn into re-usable pins, right?

RIGHT.

So here's what you'll need:

- Stickers (any shape will work)

- Clear resin 

(I like Little Windows, but full disclosure: Fran over there is an Epbot reader, and has gifted me with both resin and tools in the past.)

- White craft paint

- Pin backs

I used these, but bar-type pins are great, too.

- (Optional) A doming tray from Little Windows is extremely helpful, and only costs $3. Well worth it if you plan on doing a lot of pins!

Step 1) Peel and stick your stickers on to the tips of your doming tray:

The tray is covered in tiny plastic spikes, which allows the stickers to "float" above the tray - essential for resin doming.

If you don't have a doming tray, you can use something like a small measuring cup to support individual stickers:

The important thing is to have all the sticker edges up off your work surface, level, and not touching anything.

[UPDATE: Aha, several commenters have noted that a Perler bead tray could also work. Good call, guys!]

Step 2) Mix your 2-part resin, and allow it to rest an extra few minutes, so it's slightly thicker. Then pour a little resin onto each sticker, allowing time for it to level itself and dome up slightly.

Believe it or not, the surface tension prevents the resin from going beyond the sticker edges - which is super cool to watch!

I should note I've only tried doming with Little Windows resin, so I can't vouch for other brands. In theory they should work the same, but I hope some of you will chime in and let me know!

Go slowly pouring the resin, since you can always add more. For odd shaped stickers use a toothpick to help drag the resin into smaller areas, like the Tie Fighter wings and Rey's belt on the stickers above.

Step 3) Once your stickers are domed as high as you like, cover them with a box or lid to keep dust off, and let them cure overnight.

Step 4) The next day, pop your domed stickers off the tray, and paint the back sticky sides with two coats of white craft paint.

Why? Because any white areas of your stickers may saturate with the resin, which darkens it like so:

Before and after two coats of white paint on the back side.

PRO TIP: You may be tempted to seal your stickers before adding the resin to prevent this bleed-through. If you do, DON'T USE CLEAR PACKING TAPE. The resin won't stick to packing tape. Ask me how I know. (whoopsie)

This bleed-through only seems to be a problem in stickers with large amounts of white, so you may not need to paint yours at all. I decided to paint all of mine, though, just because it looks nice:

Don't worry if you get a little paint on the fronts; once it dries you can run a fingernail over the resin edge, and the paint pops right off.

Step 5) Mix another batch of resin, allowing it to set up a few extra minutes again, and repeat step 2 for the backsides of the pins. You don't need a doming tray this time, though, and you can use less resin, since you only want to seal the backs, not dome them.

Step 6) About 20 minutes after pouring the resin, gently push your pin backs into place:

The resin will overlap the pin back and seal it in, making it incredibly strong.

These pins are super light, so you may want to use TWO tacks to keep them from spinning around on your lanyard. That, or use a bar pin, if the sticker is large enough.

And that's it! Once the backs have cured, your new pins are ready to decorate your jackets, bags, lanyards, etc.

As you can see, the doming works on all shapes, but tiny areas like those X-Wing tips are harder to reach with the resin, and therefore a bit more fragile. All of the other shapes worked great for me, though, and feel surprisingly strong.

Oh, I forgot to mention: several of these stickers originally had a thick white outline that I trimmed off before doming. You may want to do the same with some of yours, for a cleaner look.

Trimming your stickers has the added advantage of getting rid of any clunky copyright text - although some stickers, like this Stormtrooper one, are great as-is:

I'm planning to finish up more of these, once I buy more pin backs!

Plus I have some larger art stickers from conventions I'd like to try. Instead of pins, you could turn your domed stickers into charms, necklaces, earrings - so many fun possibilities!

I hope this inspires some of you to give resin doming a try! Happy crafting!