Funky, five minute, flower pin tutorial

This is a super fast way to make fabulous, colorful pins.    (Or use these little beauties to embellish your other creations!!) 

What you will need:

• silk flowers of various colors, shapes and sizes  
  
• jumbo brads, 1" across (available at scrapbooking stores)
• 1" round piece of chipboard
• pin back
• jewelry glue (E-6000 or clear liquid nails)
• ephemera to decorate the front of the pin (bottlecaps, 1" images, broken jewelry, charms, small skulls or hearts)

Step 1:  Disassemble the silk flowers  (you will need flowers that have a hole in the middle when taken apart;  if there is no hole, you will need to make one using an 1/8" hole punch or a craft knife)

Step 2: Layer the flower pieces by placing them on top of each other.   I usually use four or five layers of different shapes and different color flowers.  

Step 3:  Thread your brad through the flower layers.  (Remember, your flowers each have a hole in the middle of them).  Line up the holes and thread the brad through.  

Step 4:   Using jewelry glue, glue your 1" piece of chipboard (or flat object of similar size) to the back of your pin.  The chipboard piece should be centered and cover the prongs of the brad.   (Here, I used a flat alphabet tin as the backing).

Step 5:  Embellish the front of your pin.  You can do this in several ways.  

• Decopauge an image directly onto the top of the brad
• Glue a bottle cap onto the top of the brad and then decorate the inside of the bottlecap
• Glue bits of jewelry or charms onto the top of the brad
• I make little polymer clay skulls that I like to glue onto the top of the bradDon't forget to use glitter glue to give the flower petals a little sparkle!

Step 6:  Using jewelry glue, glue the pin back onto the back of the pin. 

Enjoy!!

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My creating methods

This is my first posting ever--so bare with me!! I love creating art!! I eat, drink and breathe it. I love the traditional supplies, acrylic paints, glitter, modpdge, but I'm also a gadget girl. Grungeboard, UTEE, new Crafty Chica Line; I just can’t get enough. Back to creating. I can't imagine not doing it. I guess I feel like in creating something or transforming something, I am transforming myself and the world around me. A little glitter makes everything seem a little brighter!! Like I said, I love creating art. The process of starting with nothing and turning it into something. Did I say I live (love) art. And I love mass producing it. I do a lot of shows so I need inventory and I sort of figured out a process that works for me. It’s not so much the medium that appeals to me as much as the outcome of what I am trying to create. When working on a piece, I first visualize what I would like the end result to be and then I try to think about what medium would allow me to get that result. It’s like working backwards on a project. Sometimes, if it is a medium that I’m not familiar with, I will learn it just enough to incorporate it into what I am trying to do. I do mainly work with Premo! polymer clay because it is so versatile and allows me to do most of what I am trying to do. I tend to create several pieces with the same basic theme or colors, and then embellish them differently. I can take each one in a different direction. Out of those 5 or 6, I usually end up with something I really like. (And a few that I don’t really care for). The great thing about art, is that the pieces I’m not so crazy about, are the ones that someone else really loves.

Like I said, this is my first post. I hope to post a tutorial in the next day or two. Any advice from you veterans (Krissi, Yoli) would be a great help. You all have inspired me to get off of my A** and figure this computer networking stuff out! I'm slow, but i'll get it. Thanks girlies.

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