Homemade Hair Clips

While shopping at Target a little while back, I came across some a set of six 18 inch pieces of ribbon for $1.00 that I thought would be great to make Morgan some inexpensive hair clips. It seemed like it would be a simple little project at the time...

I searched for the alligator clips at Hobby Lobby for what seemed like forever and finally found someone to help (who happened to be an old high school friend) and bought 5 for $1.99. I thought they were cheaper than that, but they would work....so I thought....

The clips ended up being too wide and those were the only ones that Hobby Lobby had. I then checked online and found a 25 pack on e-bay for $8.00. Still a little more pricey than I was expecting, but they were the right size and they would work....so I thought....

The e-bay alligator clips came in the mail and the teeth were on the top of the clips instead of on the bottom, so when I tucked the ribbon under, it would cover up the teeth that were suppose to be holding the clip in Morgan's hair....

Well, I wasn't spending any more money! (So I thought!) I decided that I'd make it work by trimming down the sides of the ribbon. I looked up a tutorial online and saw that I could heat seal the ends and sides with a lighter, so the ribbon wouldn't fall apart. It was going to work and I still wasn't going to spend much money, until I realized that I didn't have glue to attach ribbon to metal...

My mom ended up checking out Jo-Ann Fabrics and found some glue that would work well...another $5.00, but I should be all set and ready to make all sorts of hair clips...

A few days after finally having everything to make some not-so-cheap hair clips, I decided to start putting them together. I jumped right into it and got the ribbon cut and ready to glue on the alligator clip when I realized that glue was some pretty strong stuff on the nose! As I'm thinking it, Rich is standing beside me reading all the warnings about how it should be used in a well-ventilated area, shouldn't touch the skin, causes cancer.....oops! Should have read THAT first! I only made one at that time and decided I should wait until the weather was nice and finish making them in the mudroom (where there is a window across from a sliding glass door and a door from the garage and a door into the house. VERY well-ventilated!)

So, they are done and they turned out to be some fairly expensive, somewhat toxic, but super cute hair clips.

And I made enough for my nieces and my best friends' daughter too! :-)

What I thought would be an inexpensive and easy little project, turned into a big, kinda pricey ordeal, but it was well worth learning something new and all the little girls' excitement receiving their brand new homemade hair clips. :-)