Saturday 5 November 2011

Tutorial for my 'Make Your Own' Hairclip Kits

So I've just started putting together little 'make your own' hairclip kits.

These are really cute little packs where you can make a couple of hairclips using different ribbons and embellishments. BUT the kits don't come with instructions (mainly because they wouldn't have looked quite as cute in their packaging with a great big piece of white paper!). So here's instructions on how to make the hairclips that are in the kits. Obviously the ribbon and embellishments might not match your exact kit but you should get the basic idea!


The Tutorial
A note about glue : I much prefer to use a hot glue gun (despite constantly burning my fingers) but you could use really, really strong craft glue or possibly even the super strong double sided tape. It's up to you and what you have available. If you're using hot glue and children are doing the project or helping, please be VERY careful. If you do get the hot glue on yourself dip your finger into a bowl of iced water or run it under the cold water tap. Don't try and pull the glue off straight away or your skin will go with it!

1. Place glue along the length of the ribbon (just one at a time though!)

2. Working quickly, place your clip right side up, to the left side of the ribbon so that it covers about 1.5cm of the end of the ribbon.
3. Tip the clip up onto its end and press and fold the ribbon over the two 'squeeze' edges.
4. The fold it over and lay the ribbon on the top of the clip. (sorry, the last two steps were really hard to photograph given I needed two hands to do it and then one hand to hold the camera, kinda didn't work)
5. Open the clip and fold the remaining bit of ribbon under the top prong of the clip.

6. Press down hard to secure the glue.
7. Open and close the clip a few times to make sure glue hasn't stuck it together.
8. Apply glue to your embellishment (this could be a button, butterfly, pearl etc) and place it on the top of the covered clip. Press firmly to ensure it's stuck.
9. Allow to dry for a few hours.


So this is just the absolute basics and hopefully the start of some fun for you. If you want a more challenging hairclip kit (with really detailed instructions and full colour pictures), try my Ultimate DIY Hairclip Kit available here. Good luck!