How to DIY Enamel Pins at Home?

We all know that, if you plan on making enamel pins, you’ll need to get in touch with a manufacturer. This means you’ll 

need to buy at least 100 pins of a single design to bring down the cost.

What if there’s an alternative? What if I told you there’s a way to make enamel pins at home? That’s right!

With a little precision and patience, you can make these pins yourself at the comfort of your own home. The best part 

about this is that you get to control the number of pins and their respective designs any way you want.

I’ll be sharing the process of making enamel pins at home in 7 easy steps. This will include a lot of items like Nufun film, 

enamel spray and locking pin backs. So make sure you are stacked before getting into this tutorial.

Let’s get started!

Before I proceed, please remember that you’ll need an inkjet printer for making enamel pins. You’ll need to print images 

on special plastic film which will melt inside a regular laser printer.

Ok! First, take your desired image and begin printing them on Nufun film. Be very careful to adjust the settings on your 

printer to accommodate this film. Also, set the image quality on it to ‘high’ otherwise, you’ll get a smudged and pixilated 

image after baking.

You don’t need anything fancy or industrial to cut out the printed images. Plain, sharp scissors will do just fine. The great 

thing about this film is that it’s a very soft but sturdy material.

You’ll be able to cut out your image smoothly while trimming any excess borders outside the image area.

It’s time to bake those pins!

I highly recommend baking your pins on a piece of parchment paper for 2 minutes (at 350 degrees). It’s best if you bake 1 or 2 pins at a time to avoid any sort of overcrowding.

However, there will be some curling and shrinking of the pins which is natural. To prevent this, put another piece of parchment paper on top of the pins. This will help weigh them down and stop curling.

It’s absolutely important that you seal the pins you just baked to prevent the color from being rubbed off.

The sealing process involves applying 2 coatings of Rustoleum Enamel Spray. Additionally, you’ll have to wait around 30 minutes between coatings. This will help it to seal properly.

As you’ve guessed, this is where your pins become enamel pins!

This step will give depth to your pins and make them look like professionally made ones.

Put your enamel pins on a flat surface and start applying Modge Podge Dimensional Magic. Start from the outside edges and slowly fill the insides with this glue-like substance. This will prevent any spills or leakage.

After finishing this step, let the enamel pins dry for about 3 hours. You can also dry it for a full 24 hours just to be extra 

sure.

You’ll need a lot of precision to make sure your pins are free of any trapped air.

To ensure this, do a close inspection of the dried enamel pins. If there are any air bubbles, use a toothpick to move them 

to the edges of the pin. Remember, you can’t pop these bubbles so you’ll need to push them off the pin edges.

Repeat this process until every little air bubble is removed from all of your pins.

Finally, flip over your enamel pins to fasten them with locking pin backs. I highly advise you to choose these locking 

mechanisms instead of the regular rubber ones. The latter will most definitely get detached. You should go for maximum 

protection.

To attach the locking mechanism, apply 1 or 2 drops of super glue on the back of your enamel pins and stick them 

together. Make sure the locking pin backs are seated well before letting them dry.

Congratulations! You just made your very own custom enamel pins at home. All that’s left to do now is put them on your 

favourite things like jackets and backpacks!

Enamel pins are a great fashion accessory. You can even put them on hats and shirt collars to really brighten up your 

entire outfit. They are really cool.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to make enamel pins at home. Stay safe!

Answer: The ideal way is to bake 1 or 2 enamel pins at a time on parchment paper. You need to be mindful of the fact that there will be some shrinking and curling of the pins after baking. Hence, baking too many pins can cause a mess. To 

reduce curling, take another piece of parchment paper and put it on top of the pins. This will help them weigh down.

Answer: What you need to understand is that you can’t pop the air bubbles inside dried pins. You’ll need to push them 

towards the edges to get rid of them. To do this, take a toothpick and gently push the bubbles to the sides. Avoid using 

sharp needles as that might hurt the pin’s surface.

Read More: