Muffin Tin Collage and Recycled Metal Frames

Steps:

1. Lightly sand the back of the sawtooth hanger and the back of the muffin tin where you want to attach the hanger. Use super strength hot glue to attach.

2. Work out the arrangement by holding items temporarily in place with removable adhesive.

3. Start by attaching paper items with craft glue. Use the hot glue for all other items. When gluing metal to metal, lightly sand with sandpaper for better adhesion.

Figure A

4. If you wish to hang things from the bottom edge, make holes with the nail before you begin gluing. Just a few hits with a hammer easily pushes the nail through the metal. Use wire to attach items if necessary.

5. Personalize your collage by adding a photo placed in a small store-bought frame, or make your own photo frame (see below).

Belt Buckle, Bottle Cap and Embossed Metal Frames

Materials and Tools:

small photos
spray adhesive
mat board
craft scissors or craft knife
heavy craft glue
ruler
fine-tip marker
embossing metal or tooling foil
fine-point stylus
felt
belt buckle
glitter, sequins, rhinestones, etc.
needle tool (optional)

Figure B

A bottle cap frame is simply made by spreading craft glue into the cap, placing a tiny photo on the glue, and sprinkling glitter on the excess glue around the edge of the photo. Here's how to make the belt-buckle and embossed metal frames.

Figure C

For the belt-buckle frame:

Steps:

1. Cut the belt off an old "C-shaped" belt buckle and use pliers or a jeweler's saw to remove the metal prong. If you want to use a rectangle-shaped buckle, the metal crosspiece will have to be removed using a jeweler's saw.

2. Prepare your photos by using spray adhesive to mount them onto mat board.

3. Make a pattern by tracing around the inside of the buckle. Enlarge this pattern by 1/4" along the sides and top.

4. Using the pattern, mark your photo. Cut out the photo and use heavy-body craft glue to mount the photo onto the backside of the buckle.

For the embossed metal frame:

1. Start by marking a piece of metal foil. Trace around your mat board-backed photo using a fine-point marker. The, using a ruler, emboss a line 1/16" larger than your photo with the stylus. Emboss another line 1/4" away from the last line.

2. Using craft scissors, cut out the frame along the outside embossed line. Also, cut off all four corners at a 45-degree angle, right up to the first embossed corners.

3. Your 1/4" flap is now ready to be embossed in a decorative manner with the stylus. Simple geometric or floral patterns work best. Work on top of a piece of felt so that your stylus makes a nice deep impression in the metal foil.

5. Tiny decorative holes can be added to your design with a needle tool. You will need to use two layers of felt under the metal foil to do this.

6. You now need to re-fold all of the straight embossed lines so that they will fold neatly and easily over your photo to create the frame. Using the straight edge of your ruler, press the 1/4" decorated flap up and over the ruler. Flatten back down. Do this for all four sides.

7. Place photo onto the center of your foil frame with a small dab of craft glue. Fold all of the 1/4" flaps over the photo. If the corners don’t meet at an exact 45-degree angle, you can fold the flaps in slightly more to create the correct angle, or just glue sequins on top of the corners.

Tips:

1. Good items to glue into the muffin tin: costume jewelry, broken watches, clock gears, cuff links, keys, service pins, pet tags, foreign coins, buttons, thimbles, bobbins, small pieces of lace or fabric, small ball of yarn, shank of embroidery floss, rolled-up metal zippers, snaps, safety pins, diaper pins, board game pieces, dice, alphabet letters, marbles, jacks, bottle caps, seashells, tiny toys and dolls, miniatures, dollhouse furniture, small figurines, tiny perfume bottles, old stamps, trading stamps, decals, stickers, old photos, curlers, hair clips, barrettes, etc.

2. Items to hang off the bottom edge: charm bracelet, necklace, measuring spoons, tea ball, eyeglasses, pocket watch, glass crystals from a chandelier, etc.

3. Items to glue up center of tin: spoon, utensil, wood ruler, or large paintbrush, etc.

4. Collages can be designed around a specific theme such as cooking, sewing, romance, travel, childhood, patriotism or holidays.

5. To color-coordinate with a room, or just to give your collage a more cohesive look, use bits of the same color throughout your piece.

6. A small wood shelf can be glued across the top edge. Use layers of hot glue to fill-in the uneven angle between the shelf and the slope of the muffin cup. This shelf is a great way to display slightly larger items like figurines or dolls.

7. You can have any photos you want to use color-copied so that you don’t have to use your original vintage photos. Be sure to select "photo" quality for the copies

Resource Tips:

- Used or vintage tins can be found at second-hand stores, antique stores, flea markets and estate sales.

- The super-strength hot glue is usually found at home improvement stores rather than craft stores.

- The removable adhesive is available at both craft stores and home improvement stores