How to Make Vintage Hair Clips
Antique hair clips lend a touch of elegance and nostalgia when holding tendrils of hair back in hairstyles ranging from simple ponytails to sleek buns. Instead of searching for an eye-catching hair accessory at flea markets and vintage shops, customize your own clips to complement an assortment of different outfits. Use supplies from the craft store like acrylic paint, crackle medium, jewelry findings and beads to turn inexpensive, plain metal accessories into antique-looking hair clips. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Scrap paper
- Acrylic paint
- Metal hair clip
- Paintbrush
- Crackle medium
- Clear glass microbeads
- White glue
- Paper plate
- Embellishment
- Adhesive dots
Instructions
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Cover your work table with scrap paper to protect the surface from paints and adhesives.
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Create an "antique" finish for the hair clip by applying a coat of white or cream acrylic paint to the top of a metal hair clip with a paintbrush.
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Add a medium coat of crackle medium with a paintbrush once the acrylic paint dries.
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Paint a darker color of acrylic paint onto the hair clip with a paintbrush when the crackle medium becomes tacky to the touch. The direction of the paint strokes will determine the direction of the cracks--brush a light coat of paint on in different directions to generate small cracks that run horizontally and vertically along the hair clip.
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Leave the hair clip "as is" or add sparkle by applying clear glass microbeads sold at rubber stamping, jewelry making and craft stores. Use a paintbrush to apply a thin coat of white glue over the cracked paint, and then press the clip into a layer of microbeads poured onto a paper plate. Seal the beads with decoupage glaze to prevent them from flaking off.
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Affix an embellishment to become the focal point of the vintage hair clip once the paint dries. Attach a small, gemstone brooch to the end of the clip with adhesive dots; add an artificial feather along the bottom of the clip; or use adhesive dots to attach a metal charm to the end of the clip, for example.
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Tips & Warnings
To generate an antique finish on the hair clips without using crackle medium, paint the metal clip with a coat of white acrylic paint. Once the paint dries, cover it with a coat of a darker acrylic paint. Rub fine-grain sandpaper over the edges to distress the clip and allow the lighter shade of paint to show through in spots.
Use the simple crafting technique to turn other hair accents like metal hair combs, sticks and headbands into vintage hair accessories.
When applying acrylic paint over the crackle medium, do not brush over the same spot repeatedly since this will merely blend the crackle medium with the paint and fail to generate any cracks.
If a young girl will be wearing the vintage hair clips, ensure she's past the stage of putting small objects into her mouth since the gems or charms can fall off and become a choking hazard.
