Lil Reindeer Antlers Hair Clip Tutorial

Today I've got another holiday wearable tutorial.  This one is so fun & festive, you can't help but feel merry seeing them: my Lil Reindeer Antlers Hair Clips!

These are inexpensive to make and a great way to dress up any outfit this season.

And make for some terrific holiday photos:



They use basic craft supplies, so they're very simple to add to your holiday to-make list!




Materials:
- Brown & green felt
- Polyfil
- 3/8 inch wide grosgrain ribbon
- Round red beads
- Jingle bells
- Hair Clips
- Hot glue/E6000 glue
- Notions: Sewing machine, paper, marking pen, hand sewing needle, knitting needle or pencil, scissors

Start by drawing an antler shape on a piece of paper, about 4 inches high and cut out.  Cut out two pairs of 4in x 4in squares from the brown felt and trace the antler shape onto the top of each pair.

Stitch along the outline of each antler stack, leaving the bottom open.

Cut antlers out close to stitching and stuff with some polyfil, using a knitting needle or pencil to gently fill all the nooks and crannies.  Fold the raw edges of the openings inward.

Cut out some small holly leaves from the green.  I just freehanded those - they don't have to be perfect!

I dabbed a bit of hot glue to attach the leaves to the base of each antler and then stitched the beads and bells onto them by hand.  You could glue them, but I wanted to be sure they wouldn't fall off, so stitching was added security.

Cut a 4 1/4 inch piece of ribbon for each hair clip.   To wrap the clip, put a line of glue along an inch and open the clip and stick it to the underside of the clip's top half:

Then add some glue to the top, end and around the base to wrap the ribbon all the way around. 

Now that the clips are wrapped, dab a generous amount of E6000 glue onto the base of each antler and attach them to the clips.  This glue is super strong, so it'll support the weight of the antlers better than hot glue.  You'll want to make sure the clips face each other so the antlers mirror each other.  You don't want two facing the same way - that makes for wonky reindeer;)

I let them dry upside down and then they were ready to wear:

I made this festive shirt to go with them, since I'm on my machine embroidery kick for the holidays.  My kids love the movie "Elf", so this seemed the perfect fit to go with our new antlers:

Happy Crafty Christmas!  

And if you like making holiday hair clips, check out my other how-to's by clicking the photos below:

Tutorial Time: 3-D Ribbon Christmas Tree Hair Clips

Now that December is here, I'm ready to celebrate the holiday season with a month of fun & festive projects.  Today I'm kicking it off with this little tutorial: Ribbon Christmas Tree Hair Clips.

Using just a few basic supplies, you can create this cute ribbon tree that is an adorable addition for hairstyles or can be glued to a brooch pin instead to become a wearable piece of jewelry.

I'd seen pics of these around for sale, but couldn't find any actual tutorials, so I decided to figure it out on my own & share how I made them.

Materials:
- Spool of each: red and green 3/8inch wide grosgrain ribbon
- 3/8 inch wide brown grosgrain ribbon (9 inches=2 clips)
- Plastic star beads
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Hair clips
- Optional: lighter for sealing cut ribbon edges

I started by cutting ten 2 1/2 inch strips from my red and my green ribbons for each tree.  I ran a lighter along the cut edges of each strip to prevent fraying.  I chose a green ribbon with dots to give the looks of tiny ornaments for my trees:

I started by putting a dab of glue onto the back side of either end of my green ribbon strips and attaching a red strip.  Then I made a little loop and glued those ends together.  I repeated for all the strip pairs.

Next I layered a few loops at the tops, on a slight angle, and glued them together, 4 in one bunch, 3 in the next, then 2, leaving 1 loop alone:

Then I glued the layers together to create my little trees:

I had these little plastic stars in my bead stash that were the perfect size for the tree toppers, but unfortunately they were clear:

so I grabbed some silver acrylic paint I had knocking about and gave them a little makeover and when they were dry I glued them to the tops of my trees.

For the clips, I cut a piece of brown grosgrain 4 1/2 inches long, sealed the ends.  To wrap the clip, I put a line of glue along an inch and opened the clip and stuck it to the underside of the clip's top half (I missed taking a pic of this bit, so this is a substitute of how to get started that used some red ribbon):

Then I added some glue to the top, end and around the base to wrap the ribbon all the way around. 

The brown gives the perfect tree trunk base:

Then I added some glue to the top of the clip and attached the ribbon tree:

And these sweet trees were ready to wear!  Fun to make & a thrifty holiday accessory too:)

I've got more ribbon-related hair goodies coming up this month, 

so stay tuned!

Fun & Easy Craft Projects Using Polymer Clay Canes

With the right supplies you can craft up some great creations using minimal effort.  Today I thought I'd share something I used during my holiday break to craft up some seasonal goodies in mere minutes: polymer clay canes.

I discovered these babies on Wholeport and thought they'd be a good way to get the maximum crafting options, for minimal cost & effort.  I wasn't sure if my plan would pan out, since I haven't done much crafting with polymer clay, but I thought I'd give it a go. It's not like I have to sculpt the designs - just cut them!

Now, in case you're wondering what I'm talking about, polymer clay canes are rolled sticks of hardened clay that have fun millefiore-style designs inside.  Just cut them to the desired thickness with a sharp blade and they can be used for all sorts of things.  Earrings, barrettes, card/scrapbook embellishments, decorations - whatever you can dream up.  

I got an assortment of wintery-designs.  Each cane is a couple of inches long. I was a little worried about them being so small (the diameters varied between 1/4-1/2 inch), but I had no trouble coming up with loads of ways to use all of them.  

This set had 8 holiday sticks for less than $1 total.  Seriously, that's it.  Talk about budget friendly.  And I've made lots of things and still have a good amount left.  The cheapskate in me LOVES that.

I found it easiest to cut mine with a razor blade on a cutting board and doing it slowly to keep the slices even.  Slice them super thin and they can even be used for nail art!

To adhere my clay disks, I used E6000 glue.  It's super strong and easier to use with small items than hot glue.  It is a bit noxious, so have some good ventilation and try to keep it off your hands.  Using tweezers made it easier to adhere mine:

I glued a few pairs to some earring posts to make these cute seasonal studs:

And added a handful of the larger snowflakes to this satin headband to go with a silver snowflake dress I recently made (dress reveal coming soon):

I made several ribbon covered hair clips with them too.  Here's a little peppermint & snowflake combo:

And a winter medley that is holiday festive, but won't be totally passé now that Christmas is over:

I especially loved using these tiny grey kitties with a little ruffle edged ribbon.  So dainty!

I'm thinking about gluing a few onto some bottle caps to make some dollhouse/My Little Pony play food cookies for the Little Miss and maybe slicing up a bunch for the kids to use for art projects.  I'd definitely get these again & as an added bonus, they don't take up much space, so storing the leftovers is easy too!

You can find lots more polymer cane designs here.  There are flowers, fruits, cute critters, colorful shapes, etc. I can't wait to expand my stash with some more:)
  

I'm also sharing this project with my FAVE LINK PARTIES.

Click HERE to check them out!

I was not financially compensated for this post.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experiences.   I selected several items from my Sponsor, Wholeport, to review.  I am an affiliate of Wholeport.  For my complete disclosure policy, click here. 

Easy Crafting: Hair Clip Making Kits by Make The World Prettier

As you could see from my DIY Barrette Organizer Board earlier this week, I've really gotten into making hair accessories for my little miss.  It's fun & totally addicting!  But I'm also trying a realist when it comes to the supplies.  I might make a pair or two with a particular print ribbon or embellishment, but I don't want to have to buy yards of one ribbon design or a dozen of the same resin flat backs.  When actually you add up those amounts at the end of the day, it doesn't really save you much compared to the already made clips.  

For this reason, I'm so excited to share something new from my sweet sponsor Make The World Prettier.

This shop is already a great source for unusual and unique fabric & ribbons, but now they also offer Barrette/Hair Clip Making Kits.  This means instead of spending ages trying to find the right size & color ribbons, matching embellishments, hardware and a how-to, you can just get started making them!

I made some new clips with a few of these kits and am so thrilled with how they turned out.  Have a look at these cuties I created with the Fishy kit:

I love how they provide a nice variety to build up a hair accessory collection or to make as gifts, but still keep it reasonable on the wallet.  I made these little Ice Cream Treats too:

Since nearly everything but the hot glue was included, it was so simple to just start crafting. Each kit comes with 3 different ribbons and a nice assortment of coordinating resin flat backs, so you just heat up your glue gun, cut the ribbon and get going.  A lot easier than wasting hours surfing online or driving around trying to find all the supplies separately.  And even if you're not super crafty, these kits come with step-by-step instructions with photos and helpful hints.

This year it's been harder to make time to work on things, shop for supplies and get to all the projects on my to-do list, so being able to knock out some adorable, custom hair clips in no time feels great.  It's just a bit challenging getting "in the hair" pics since she refuses to sit still long enough to focus! 

I already made a few sets, but there are several others on my to-get list.  Check out how adorable this Penny Candy Barrette Making Kit is - I LOVE the candy buttons and little bubble gums!

I've got my eye on the Mermaid Dolphin Barrette Making Kit as well.  The little print ribbon gives me a total vintage toy Sea-Wees vibe:

They've also got great print ribbon by the yard, in lots of widths, like these summery chevrons:   

And in case you don't have little ladies, Make The World Prettier also offers fabrics that are ideal for the boys, babies & other sewing projects:

There are lots of fun things to find and they always arrive nice & fast too.  Have a look at Make The World Prettier & get your pretty hair clip making on too!

This is a sponsored post, for which I received compensation.  The opinions are completely my own, based on my honest experience with the items referenced that I have purchased myself from this sponsor.