New clips!

I'm back! It's been a couple of weeks, but I've finally gotten back around to making some new clips. I have been seeing some really cute ones all over the place using silk flowers. I was super excited to find that our Hobby Lobby has then 50% off this week! Then, I went to get some more clips and they were 50% off, too! Hurray!

Here's how I did it. I covered the alligator clips just like I did in the ribbon tutorial. Then I deconstructed some flowers... these are the ones I used





I pulled a flower off of the stem and took it's guts out



I busted out my trusty hot glue gun and glued each layer of the flower in the center. Then I took a jewel (left over from the girls' b-day party) and glued it in the middle.

Here's how they turned out
Set 1


Set 2



Here is my beautiful younger daughter modeling today's clip



It took all of 10 minutes to make 2 clips. I think they're pretty cute!


PS: Anybody need any flower guts for anything? ;-)

Alligator clip tutorial *Ribbon*

This is the other kind of clips that I like to use on my girls' hair. I've covered them with felt, but found the snap clips easier to cover with felt, and these are really cute when covered in ribbon. I pay about the same amount on these clips at Hobby Lobby. I don't think I mentioned it in the felt clip tutorial, but I find the clips in the bead section with jewelry making stuff. I'm not saying that's where it'll be at your store, but that's where it is here. :-) Anyway, here is what the clip looks like before I mess with it.



I found this ribbon in the dollar section at Target last week. 6 different ribbons, and each will make 2 clips, so 12 clips worth of ribbon for a dollar. Not too shabby.



First, measure your ribbon. You'll need enough to cover all surfaces of your clip... inside, outside, back, outside, and inside again. That may not make sense yet, but just wait. *tip: Once you get one measured and cut, go ahead and cut the rest because measuring it can be a pain*



Now, I've read and heard about using all kinds of things to adhere the ribbon to the clip. Craft glue, double sided tape (scrapbooking tape), and hot glue are a few. I haven't tried the craft glue because it seems to me it would take too long to dry and get pretty messy. I tried double sided tape, but if it's even a little too wide for your ribbon, your clip will be forever sticky. Hot glue can leave strings and if you use too much, wads of glue, but it worked best for me. My trusty glue gun:



Glue the ribbon one section at a time to the clip. If you try to put hot glue down the whole length of ribbon and do it quickly before it cools you will just make a mess. Unless you rock. I don't. One section at a time for me. Start on the inside:



Then the outside


Then glue it to the back side *tip: be sure not to get glue on the spring part. Not good, trust me.*


Glue it to the outside and back on the inside again so that you will have ribbon all the way around like this:



Now, I thought those were pretty cute on their own, but you can add whatever else you want to jazz it up. I found some paper flowers that we used for anther project years ago and stashed in the crawl space under the stairs. I love finding stuff like that. It's like a present from my past self to my present self. Okay, getting a little too "Back to the Future" there. Sorry!

Here are the flowers I found


If you like them, they were in a bag like this


But, like I said, I bought them years ago, so there's no telling if the company is even still in business. :-) On a side note, I also found some feathers. I'm thinking of ideas for those. But I digress. A little hot glue on the flowers and:



These aren't the most durable clips. The flowers are paper, so they bend and I'm sure they'll tear. I'll have to be sure the girls don't take them out and chew on them, but they're cute and even if they're worn only once, it was worth it.
*tip: if you are working with a ribbon with a pattern (like the hearts) and are trying to make two if them just alike, determine which end of the ribbon to start with before you put glue on it. Yeah, I did it twice. You'd think I'd learn*


Anyway, here is my 3 year old, "S", modeling for me.



That's it! Happy crafting!