#MakerMonday | DIY Fiesta Medal

If you’re from San Antonio you’re all too familiar with Fiesta — from the parades to the craziness of collecting Fiesta medals. Fiesta is definitely a time to embrace your creative side. Although official Fiesta medals are pretty cool collectors items, as makers we like to take things from a DIY approach. This past week, Make San Antonio team member, Jennifer, made a few limited edition DIY Fiesta medals for attendees of our Second Saturday Makers Showcase art show. If you were one of the lucky few to grab a medal … congrats! If not, we have you covered. Below is a quick instructional on how to make your very own Fiesta medal.

Materials
aluminum bottle caps
flat-head screwdriver
hammer
mallet
scissors
straight tin snips (or hacksaw blade, wire cutters)
hard working surface
hot glue gun (and, glue sticks)*
bar pins (I used 1 in.)
fabric ribbon
Dremmel grinding stone (or sand paper)
permanent markers
spray paint (paint, or nail polish which is what I used for this medal)

I used the straight tin snips to snip the edges of the bottle cap. After I made my cuts, I grabbed a flat-head screwdriver and applied pressure to the cut pieces of bottle cap to help flatten to speed up the flattening process. On a hard working surface, I used a hammer and with a few hits I flattened the bottle cap. I made sure the bottle cap was really flat with a few extra hits from the mallet. Now, that the bottle cap is flat its edges are pretty rough. I used a Dremmel grinding stone (or, you could opt for sandpaper) to sand off any jagged edges of the bottle cap.

With the flattened and newly smooth-edged bottle cap it’s ready to be painted, I used two coats of nail polish because I have an abundance of bright yellow nail polish (Wet n Wild, color D’oh!, currently $.99 at Walgreens). After applying two coats of nail polish, and waiting at least an hour I used my marker to scribble down some words.I then cut some pieces of fabric ribbons and hot glued the fabric to the bottle cap, and then glued the bar pin. I found that gluing the steel bar pin to the bottle cap was more likely to detach quicker. I think gluing the fabric directly to the bottle cap, and then gluing the bar pin to the fabric makes it sturdier and less likely to detach.

And, you’re set! You’ve made your very own DIY Fiesta medal now you’re ready to hit the Fiesta parade circuit in style.

¡Viva Fiesta from your friends at Make San Antonio!

* We made about 30 medals, and about two to three of the bottle caps detached from the bar pins. If you’d like to check out alternative adhesives, I strongly advise you check out this blog from Lemon Jitters. It’s a super helpful overview of various adhesives for crafting.

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