DIY Flower Hair Clippie or Headband

I'm sure you've seen these things...they're everywhere these days. You know what I'm talkin' about. Those obnoxiously large silk flower clippies and headbands on what seems to be every Newborn in town? The ones that retail for $10, $15, and $20 in all the children's boutiques? If you're still in the dark, here's what I'm talkin' about....



You'll be happy to know that you can make half a dozen of those bad boys for around five bucks. All you need are some silk flowers (doesn't matter if they're the "bunch" style or just a single flower), a hot glue gun, some rhinestone gems (you can get a bag of them for around $1.99 from a craft store), and the hair clippies. I use Alligator Clips and I get mine here.

Here's what I started with. I got this Peony "bunch" from AC Moore. Full price was $6.99, but they were 50% off, so I paid around $3.50. It had seven blooms on it, so that's $.50 a bloom (if you're keeping track of cost).





Alright, let's get started! First thing, pull the flower off the stem...it should come right off. It'll look something like this...



What you're going to do is take apart every layer of the flower and glue it back together with hot glue. BUT, you'll remove all the plastic pieces in the process. The layers of petals look like this...



Take that first layer and put a thin circle of glue around the hole in the center and then glue the next layer to it. Like this... (*Note that you're arranging the petals to overlap so you don't have bare patches)



Its hard to see the glue in that shot. Its easier to see the circle of glue in the next pic. Keep doing that for each layer, making sure you keep that center hole pretty open. It doesn't have to be perfect, but try to keep them as centered as possible. Put down a circle of glue, lay a layer, repeat. As you do, the original flower will get thinner and thinner, and your new flower will start to form. Like this...



Once you've got all the layers of petals glued together, get your gems out. I got these from AC Moore also, and I'm sorry about the pic quality...I couldn't for the life of me get a good shot of them. They're pastel gems that are around a 1/2" in diameter.



Pick a gem, and glue it to the center of the flower. MAKE SURE YOU ONLY USE A LITTLE HOT GLUE!!! You don't want the glue to stick out around the edges. Remember, if its not enough, you can always pull it off and try again with a little more. If you put too much, you're kinda stuck with it.



Then, grab your alligator clip (or any other clippie) and hot glue it to the back, like this...



And that's it! You're done!

Because my poor children weren't blessed with bountiful locks, I clip mine to a crocheted headband that I get from here. I get the 1" ones, and I normally just get white. After checking out the page just now, I'm thinking about ordering some of those 3-packs with the dark pink, light pink, and white....those are CUTE! ; )

Then, just stick that puppy on your baby and you're good to go! Here's Daycie, sportin' hers...