Tuesday 27 November 2012

DIY Sweater/Collar Clips Tutorial

I've never been so excited about a project than today's one! Want to learn how to make your very own customised collar/sweater clips? This is how you do it.

WHAT YOU NEED

There's quite a lot of materials you will need for this DIY, including:
note: moulds must be silicone to go in the oven. You can even use silicone ice-cube trays if you want! I got my moulds here. But search for "silicone mould" on ebay or somewhere similar if you're not from Australia! Maybe you could use these?
(Mine is kids modelling clay designed for ages "4 and up", haha. But it works!)


WHAT YOU DO

Step 1: Preheat your oven to approx. 150°C (300°C).

Step 2: Tear off a small amount of clay. Roll it into a little ball, and press it gently into the mould. Press it gently down and smooth out the edges. Then use a knife (I used a butter knife, haha) to scrape away the excess.

Step 3: Place it face-down on a baking tray, and pop it in the oven for about 15 minutes.
(The larger your mould, the longer time it will need in the oven)

Step 4: Making sure it's dry enough, carefully lift the mould (if it's dry the mould should lift easily). If it's still a bit wet (ie has dark patches), then leave it in the oven for a bit longer, but you can take the mould out now if you want.

Step 5: Paint! Use acrylic paints. Heavy-bodied paints are better as they come out thicker and more vibrant.

Step 6: Once the pain is dry, use a paintbrush to apply a layer of Mod Podge. While it's drying, move on to the next step.

Step 7: Separate a small section of chain with your pliers. Attach these to your clips, one on each end (make sure your clips have little holes in them to attach chain to!)

Step 8: Use strong glue (mine is woodworking glue, but craft glue probably works fine as well) to attach the flat side of your clips to the back of each flower.
Let it dry overnight, and you can wear your clips in the morning!

These blue flower clips are still drying as I type this up. But here are some I made earlier... and they can be worn on your sweater or your collar!

And you can buy any kind of moulds to use for your clips, or you can mould the clay by hand! Here's some examples of other shapes I made while I was making these clips...

Hope you enjoyed this DIY, and if you happen to make your own collar clips, send me a photo - I'd love to see what you come up with! And if you have any tips or tricks (I just started making these, so I'm possibly doing something wrong somewhere), let me know about them!

19 comments:

  1. FANTASTIC Annika! I love the hamburger :DD

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  2. nice to try :) love it :)
    Irene Wibowo

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  3. Waaw, you're so talented !! It looks so cute. I really like this DIY, thank you !
    If I have time I'll try it ;)

    Noé,
    on Couleur Spleen.

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  4. Wow Annika, you could sell these, they're adorable!
    I've been making my own temporary collar clips with just a pair of stud earrings and a chain from an old necklace, the bast part is it's so easy to just switch them over, and I have plenty of stud earrings to choose from :P
    xx

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    Replies
    1. That's awesome, do you mean that you just slip the chain on in between the earring and the back of the earring?? I had never thought about doing that, but that's such a good idea!

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    2. Yep that's exactly it! But your idea is still pretty amazing, you could make literally anything! Haha, but if you do use earrings, it's a good idea to put a tiny tiny piece of bluetack on the end of the earring, otherwise the stem of the earring goes straight through your top and pokes you all day, not fun :P

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    3. That's so nifty!! My earring ear holes closed over a while ago and now I have so many earrings that I don't use - that's a perfect way to recycle them. Thanks for sharing :)

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  5. Hi, my name is Agustina and I'm from argentina. I want you to know that I really love your blog and i can really relate with your personality, I'm also a fashion lover and a wannabe scientific. I love your D.I.Y and all your looks have special things that make you look amazing. thank you for sharing your life with us readers.
    XOXO.

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    Replies
    1. Gooodness thank you for such a lovely comment, I'm blushing! It means the world to me that you enjoy the science things that I've been posting! :) xxx

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  6. Holy cow!!!! You were not joking when you said DIY! I was totally thinking that you just used vintage earrings (good idea right :) or something, but this is hard-core! I love your dedication to DIYs!!! SO inspiring!
    Cx
    ps. I found a comment you left on my blog from ages ago! It made me smile!

    http://mixedmediumstheatre.blogspot.co.uk/

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    Replies
    1. Sidenote: Clearly I'm not the only one with the earrings idea! I love it!

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    2. Aww, no problem, I did see your comment on chictopia too! :)
      Thank you so much!!

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  7. Such a great DIY, this is so inspiring!

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  8. Ah i love this DIY, and Sunflowers are the best flower in the world!

    Deffo on my list of DIY's to get round to doing :) <3

    much love!

    Tanya @ What-tanya-did.blogspot.co.uk

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  9. I love this so much! I tried it too but a little different and made a tutorial for it! Don't worry I gave you credit for the idea :)
    Thank you so much for this diy aaanndddd for being so inspiring.
    I don't know if you want to look but here's my tutorial:
    http://aliensarethebomb.blogspot.ca/2013/03/diy-chained-collarsweater-clipspictures.html
    Thanks, Kya :)

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  10. This is so adorable! I spotted one of these photos on tumblr and am very glad it led me to your lovely blog. <3 I'll be following from now on. xo

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Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a message! I read every single one. Don't forget to check back for a reply if you leave a question! ♥

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