Altered Clothes Pins: Craft

I was in the mood to do something crafty this week and decided to decorate some clothes pins. It felt good to pull out the Mod Podge and scrapping embellishments. I haven't done that in a long time.

I also thought this would be a timely craft since Teacher Appreciation Day is May 4th. These cute clothes pins would be adorable gifts to share with a teacher. I added magnets to the back of mine so that we could hang artwork in the fridge and dry-erase board. You could clip a gift card in the clothes pin or use the clothes pin on a Post-It note board (see below). So many options and your kids can easily help create these.

Supplies:
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Scissors or Exacto-Knife
Clothes Pins
New Spring Paper Pack or any other digital papers or scrapbooking papers (even the comics would work)
Any scrapbooking embellishments

Put a light coat of Mod Podge onto the top of the clothes pin. Place the decorative paper on top. I used digital papers by Mindy Terasawa from Designer Digitals. First I made a template in Photoshop, and clipped all the papers I wanted to the template. Then printed them out. I loved that I was able to print just the right size with very little waste. If you don't do digital, any scrapbooking papers will do. Don't worry about the paper going over the edges. You can trim with scissors or the Exacto-knife after the Mod Podge dries. Repeat with the rest of the clothes pins.

After the Mod Podge has dried, trim the excess paper. Then apply a light coat of Mod Podge over the top of the paper. Make sure it is a thin coat so that there is no bubbling of the paper. Let it dry and then repeat again. Usually after everything is dry I like to lightly sand the edges for a little worn look. I couldn't find any sand paper last night so I skipped that step. It isn't necessary, just a preference of mine.

After all is cut and dry, you can embellish your pins however you want. I used fabric brad buttons from the Paper Studio and Itty Bitty Blossoms from Bazzill. Adhere with a strong glue like E-6000. You can add magnets on the back, use as-is on a clothes line and hang artwork, or use to clip papers.

You could also use the decorated clothes pin on a small chalk board as a Post-It note holder (sorry for the ugly Post-It note. I didn't have time to go out and find some pretty ones yet :) ) I painted a small chalkboard and then adhered the clip to the side. Now I won't be losing all my Post-It notes.