Dyed Wood Clothespins

Cuter than plain clothespins, right?

I seem to never have enough of these little guys when I need them. And by "little guys," I mean decorated clothespins. I have tons of the plain ones, but I just can't bring myself to use them as clips. And since I had a couple of dye batches made up for my ombré swimsuit cover up, I took the opportunity to see what would happen if I dropped a few wood clothespins in.


Ingredients:

• Wood clothespins
• Fabric dye - Navy Blue & Purple (Mix them according to the directions.)
• Silver acrylic paint
• Mod Podge (optional)
• Paint brushes
• Rubber gloves

Dyed 'em.

I just plopped them into the dyes right along with my cover up. I made five blue and five purple. They were in the dye for as long as it took me to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, so about and hour and a half. I watch movies while crafting now since my iPod died. I can't handle the randomness of the music channels and radio. Strange, right? Anyway.

Soak the clothespins in water, changing the water often to get rid of the extra dye. Allow to dry well. I dried them overnight.

Clip 'em.

To make it easier to paint, I clipped them onto the top of a bucket. A box would work, too. This allows me to paint both sides without having to let one side dry first.

Stop to admire the colors.

I painted stripes on the purple ones and dots on the blue ones. Dunno why. Just thought it was cute.

Stop to admire the stripes and dots on the colors.

You could seal them with a coat of Mod Podge. I didn't. I can be lazy like that sometimes.

Finished!

I put one to work already.  My Turtle Chex Mix deserves a little something cute to hold it closed.

A crafting must!

This is the second set of decorated clothespins I've made. The previous ones were covered in scrapbook paper, but these were a bit easier to do even with the dyeing and drying.

By the way, I'm not even sure this needs to be said, but I wouldn't use these as actual clothespins. I'd be too afraid the dye would come off on the wet clothes. But you probably figured that part out already.