Sunday, January 13, 2013

Clothes Pin Fiasco!

In my WOYWW - 189 Post, I said I would get with it and blog about the clothes pins.  Well here goes!

My first attempt at Clothes pins was a fiasco! I belong to the Amazing Paper Grace Club and receive a kit each month. This month had this project in it, however they forgot to include the clothes pins. I just used what I had. The magnet shipped to use did not work with my clothes pins. I can't tell you how long I played with this. Such as cute idea and oh so frustrating. I finally took the magnets off and gave the gift without the magnet. I called APG and they did mail me some clothespins...now I really did not care about the clothespins, but I did want to see how they were different than mine. They were really no different, a wee bit smaller and a wee bit wider. I guess I will never know why the magnet sheet would not work with my pins...I used E6000, zip dry, my ATG let dry over night, and 5 minutes after hanging them up the magnet would separate from the wood....

See the cute little box they will be present in. 

Bound and determined to figure this mystery out...I looked at Etsy. Sure enough, folks were selling them with a magnet.

I used modge podge glossy, on the next set. this made the pins sticky, so I switched to modge podge Matt and that did the trick!

Then I had this brain storm to put names on the pins....so I used the technique used commonly with candles of taping tissue paper to cardstock and send through the printer.

To easy!

All I had to do was modge modge it on! I thought I was so smart, but it soon dawned on me it was double work. As soon as I sanded, inked the edges of all those pins, I decided to make a set for my son. This time, I took a Sheet of 6x6 cardstock from a pad, taped it to a sheet of printer paper and sent that through the printer. I taped it to regular printer paper, because I was using cardstock. The example above I taped tissue paper to cardstock. I already knew my printer would not take the thickness of two pieces of cardstock without throwing fits and jamming. Can you see below where I used scotch tape all the way around the cardstock. For my printer, I had to put the paper in the tray upside down, yours might be diffrent.

This was so much faster!

The Joe clothespin was printed directly on paper. the others on tissue paper...you really can't tell the diffrence of either technique..All you have to do, is:

  • Trim the paper to fit your clothespin
  • Modge podge or glue the paper on the clothes pin
  • Sand around the edges
  • Distress Ink around the edges, if you want that look
  • Modge podge to seal. (I prefer the mat finish, as it did not dry sticky)

I have made little boxes with my score-pal and now need to decorated to complete the gift. These can be used so many ways, here is just a few I can come up with

  • Hold a photo
  • Hold a recipe card
  • Stick to the fridge
  • Use on your desk to clip papers together
  • Close chip bags

Do you notice the little magnets on the back side of the pin? These are earth magnets, very strong..I bought 100 of these magnets on eBay for .99 they were shipped from China for 8.00. So for 9.00, I received 200 each of 3mm x 2mm rare earth magnets. Ha, about a year ago...I live in the US and I have no idea what a mm is. So when they came in, they were so tiny, I had no idea how I was ever going to use them. SCORE!

Looking at the photos, you might not be able to tell how tiny the magnets are. HA, unless YOU know what a mm is. They really are not noticeable at all on the pins. I used E6000 to glue them down. First I put a small drop of glue on the pin, then dropped the magnet in it and pushed the magnet down, so it seated well against the pin. I have tested these with 5 sheets of 8 1/5 x 11 pieces of paper in them...they may hold more, I just quit testing.

I think I am safe. I do not think any of my birthday folks read my blog....

Oh sheesh, I just searched pinterest for clothespins! lots of fun stuff do to with clothespins.

 

3 comments:

Queen Lightwell said...

So, just out of curiosity, what ended up making the magnets stick to your clothespins? Was it the modge podge or the E6000? At any rate they are adorable and ever so handy! :) Thanks for sharing all the tips, too.

Robin said...

I think, it was using the earth magnets, not the magnet strips. I used the earth magnets and the E6000

Tamika said...

Wonderful project! I was looking at clothes pins in Wal-Mart and said to myself those are trending but passed because I probably wouldn't have made something that great or used them at all!