bottlecap pins

[abs6183.livejournal.com]

a while ago i saw this nifty pin at a thrift store made with bottlecaps, a little picture and resin, and the other night my boyfriend (so much more a craftgrrrl than i'll ever be...) and i decided to give it a try on our own.


so this was our inspiration, the one i picked up at a thrift store:


ours unfortunatly didnt come out as nice, i didnt bother to flair the sides and looking back now i think that would have helped alot. also we ran into some problems with the resin. first of all it made some of the pictures go completely see thru and others came out kinda spotty looking as you can see in this picture:
like in the bottom of the scarlett one and in the chocolat one. we made several others but these were the only salvagable ones. i'm hoping maybe some of you have some tips for how to get the picture to not get all funky with the resin. my boyfriend came up with the idea later of maybe laminating them somehow with clear tape. i also read on the web that some people glue posterboard to the back. anyone know if either idea will work out better?
we also had another minor problem with the resin in that it got kinda bumpy. i dont know if you can tell but the pin i bought was very smooth, glossy finish. ours came out more like this:

so it was a bit of a disappointment mainly because so many didnt come out at all, but i was happy with the few that did work and i think we have some good ideas to fix them next time. but i did want to share and hope maybe for some help with the resin problems/ comments on them in general.
thanks so much!