As promised, here's my tutorial on the felt flower hair clip. I love pictures, so this post is picture-heavy despite the easiness of the project.
The main tool you'll need that might not be in your arsenal already is the
Cuttlebug Die-cut & Embossing Machine. One of the first cardstock-type crafts I became interested in was card making, and the Cuttlebug is an excellent item for stepping it up a notch with homemade cards. It was only more recently that I paid attention the "die-cut" part of the name and found yet another use for this machine. And that brings me to one of my favorite hair clips ...
Here's what you'll need:
- Cuttlebug with cutting mats
- flower die-cut set
- felt
- needle and thread
- alligator hair clip
- ribbon
- button or other embellishment
- scissors
- glue (I used super glue, hot glue is fine too)
I like to assemble the hair clip first since it's the base. Cut a strand of ribbon long enough to cover the top and bottom of your alligator clip (leave enough to wrap over the edges). Glue the ribbon to the top half of the clip, wrapping some over the edge. I used the tip of the glue bottle to help hold the two sides apart to keep them from gluing together.
Aaaaand I forgot to leave some extra. (See, I told you I wouldn't
sugarcoat my mistakes!) It's ok to leave the bottom like this, but I
prefer it completely covered. It just looks bare otherwise! Anyway, glue the rest of the ribbon down to the back of the clip and the bottom, wrapping the end around the edge of the bottom (unless you didn't make your strand long enough).
And I also got a little carried away with the glue. So after this, I started over since I was giving this one away. If it was for little N, I would have just kept going with this.
Now that the clip is ready, you can move on to the felt. Here's where the Cuttlebug comes in. I won't explain how to use the Cuttlebug, since you most likely know how to already if you have one. Place your felt under each die-cutter (I used pink and red) and put them between the B cutting mats and run it through. Voila!
This was the first time I'd used die-cuts with the Cuttlebug, but I found out that it leaves indentions on the B cutting mats. From what I read online, they'll eventually need to be replaced after using it over and over again like this. I'm assuming it leaves these permanent indentions with any die-cuts and not just the flower ones. Replacements are rather cheap on Amazon.com though.
I didn't take any photos of the flower's assembly, because, well .... it's difficult to sew and take a photo at the same time. Just stack the flower shapes together, add your button (or other embellishment) on top, and hand sew starting from under the bottom flower through the top of the button. You can stitch it up anyway you like depending on your button holes. I didn't think that far ahead (go figure!) and wish I would have threaded mine differently. There's always next time! Keep going through the entire flower and button with your thread several times. This will hold it all together nicely. You could glue all the pieces together if you prefer, but that's just too messy for my liking. It's much quicker to sew it. Here's what it looks like after you sew it. (Can you tell I like taking photos with my new camera?)
Once you're through sewing it together, you're ready to attach it to the hair clip. I used more super glue for this. You can place it however you like. For the rainbow colored clip, I placed it closer to the end of the clip, so the clip is only visible from one end. (You'll see the clip I'm talking about in the last picture.) And that's it! See, I told you it was easy. Here's the finished product:
And here's the rainbow hair clip in my little N's hair. She was being a good sport for this photo because she doesn't like things in her hair. (Yes, a huge container of bows is sitting in her closet waiting for the day she may decide to like them.) They're small, but really cute! If you just want a hair clip to hold bangs to the side, or don't like really big bows (but still want a little something girly in your daughter's hair), this is the perfect one for you.
If you don't have the equipment (or time!) to make these clips, you can check out my
Etsy shop for a custom made one!
Ready for a craft so simple your kids could do it? If you don't even have a tiny crafty bone in your body, this one's for you!
