How to Make a Wooden Clothespin House

Clothespins play a role in a variety of crafts.

Chances are you do not regularly use clothespins, at least not for their intended purpose--hanging clothes to be air-dried outside. The invention of the residential clothes dryer has left clothespins largely unused for that purpose, but these unique little items still have a variety of other uses--particularly for arts and crafts. In fact, you can even make a miniature house out of clothespins.

Things You'll Need

• Old newspaper
• 3 or 4 bags of wooden clothespins
• Glue gun with 100 glue sticks
• Ruler

Instructions

1. Cover your work surface with old newspaper. Remove all of the clothespins from the bags and place them in a pile.

2. Take one clothespin and hold it so that the solid side of the clothespin is facing you (the spring in the center should not be facing you.) Place a few dots of glue on this side and attach it to the side of another clothespin. The two should hold together. Align the clothespins perfectly--the top of one pin should not be above the top of another. Repeat this process adding more clothespins until you have created a "wall" measuring 6 inches long.

3. Make 11 more walls identical to the one you made in the previous step.

4. Separate the 12 walls into groups of two once they have dried. For each group, place a few dots of glue on top of one wall (where the clothespins open) and place the second wall on top of it upside down (the two "legs" of the clothespins should be pointing upward), perfectly aligned. You should now have six large walls.

5. Make a box with four of the walls. Two walls should be running vertically and two horizontally like the walls of a plain, square house. Lastly, glue the remaining two walls to the top of the four-walled box like a roof. The two walls should lean against each other at an angle, forming the peak of a roof. Reinforce any weak areas with extra glue and allow the house to set for 12 hours.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the same kind of clothespin for this project. Mixing round, springless and straight, springed clothespins could compromise the strength of the house and make it difficult to complete this project. Straight, springed clothespins are the best to use for this project.

• Although 6 inches is suggested for this project, you can make your clothespin house longer, taller or both by adding more clothespins to the walls.

• Paint your clothespin house and add various decorations as you wish.

References

• PaperToys.com: Pick or Stick
• Better Homes and Gardens.com: Clothespin Snowflake and Crafts-Stick Snowflake