Tutorial - Summer and Altered Clothespins

This week at Practical Scrappers the challenge is to create a summer-themed project.  Besides, sun, sand and Michigan's Great Lakes, few things scream summer to me like clothes hanging on the line to dry.  It may sound odd, but the fact remains that clothespins remind me of my childhood days.  They bring back thoughts of spending time with my grandmother and helping her take in the laundry after hanging on the clothesline to dry in the sun.  So when I saw these plain jumbo clothespins at a recent trip to Hobby Lobby (for only a bit more than a couple bucks a piece), I purchased two to create my own variation of a summer-themed project. 

These Jumbo clothes pins are fun and so quick and easy to alter, and they are perfect for displaying your favorite summertime photographs or clipping up a note or memo.  Here's a quick tutorial to help you make your own.

To begin, I removed the packaging from the clothespins and then took the pins apart by removing the spring in order to paint and paper the bare wood.

I used the packaging from the pins to mix some white acrylic paint with a few sprays of water from my Mini Mister to thin the paint because I wanted the wood grain of the pin to show through the coat of paint. I then painted the wooden pins with a thin coat of paint and let them dry.

For this tutorial I used the Cosmos Cricut Delovely collection of patterned papers and the Ready-Set-Chip for a quick way to embellish the clothespin as well.  (I papered and embellished the second pin with items from Girls Paperie.)

To ensure that I got an exact fit for the paper, I laid the pin upside down on the back side of the patterned paper and traced the outline of the wood.  I then cut just inside the lines with my paper trimmer while also leaving the long end about 1/8 of inch longer at the bottom.

Then I used my bone folder to score the paper in the groove where the spring will be reattached.  Once you score the paper, that extra 1/8 of an inch will be taken up and the paper fits perfectly from end to end.

I then used Mod Podge to adhere the paper to the wood by first spreading a thin layer on the wood and then on top of the paper as well.

I repeated the process for both sides of the pin and allowed them to dry.

I then selected the embellishments I wanted for each side of the pin and replaced the spring that holds the two sides together.

I had two photographs that I wanted to display using this wooden pin, so I also matted each of the photographs with coordinating cardstock by Papertrey Ink.

I didn't want the clothespin to be too "fussy" since I wanted to display photograhps of my grandsons (one with my mother) so I used some chipboard from the Delovely collection by Cosmo Cricut and added some pearls from Hero Arts as well.

This photograph shows one side of the finished clothespin (the opposite side was displayed at the top of this post)

For this second clothespin I used Girls Paperie On Holiday Collection and vintage pieces from that collection as well. I also decided to paper the inside of the clothespin with red and white polka dot paper from that collection.

Okay, that's it for today, just remember to stop by Practical Scrappers for more inspiration and don't forget to enter your summer-themed project by uploading on the blog!