5 Ways To Dress Up Your Paperclips

Hello there =)

How do you keep your place in the paper world? In your notebooks, novels you’re reading or a stack of papers? Paperclips?

I don’t know about you, but the basic silver paperclip doesn’t cut it for me. BOR-ING! I grew tired of those years ago. Now I have oodles and oodles of different colored ones. And then… bored again.

Are your tired of plain old paperclips keeping your papers together or holding your place too? I have 5 ways you can dress them up. That’s code for we’re going to put stuff on your paperclips. ;)

Now, this isn’t new. It can’t be new. I see them all over Pinterest, I’m sure you have too. But… I haven’t made them yet and crafts with my witty remarks are priceless.

This project is so quick and easy I’m proudly slapping my 30 Minute Crafts label on it. The hardest part will be deciding which ones to make. Seriously.

Put A Ribbon On It

Gather up all your ribbon scraps and pick out your favorites. Take a few pieces and cut them a few inches in length. I used 3 stands of ribbon for mine: a silky polka dot, a skinny black and white organza.

Fold ribbon in half.
Stick one end of the folded ribbon through the top of the paperclip. You should have a loop on one side and the ends of the ribbon on the other.
Feed the ends of the ribbon through the loop and pull to tighten on the paperclip.
Trim ends if desired.

This is by far the easiest paperclip topper to whip up. Don’t be surprised if you end up with a pile of ribboned clips. This has been your warning.

Everything’s Better With Washi

Like the heading says, everything is better with washi tape. I can’t think of anything I made worse with washi. It’s like a little piece of happiness you can stick anywhere.

OK. Back to the clips.

For these, I simply cut a length of washi, looped through the clip, secured to itself and clipped the ends. Easy peasy.

These ones were not my favorite to make. Something about the way the tape bunched up on the curved part of the clip bugged me.

But that cute gold one with the pink, side flag… that one may get some heavy use out of me =)

Button Up

I’m not much of a button hoarder. I rarely keep the spare buttons that come with my clothes.

Correction: I do keep them, I just end up losing them.

My Grandma’s stash of buttons is a different story. When she passed, I acquired her sewing box along with a bevy of buttons. Those I will keep or use for special craft projects.

I dumped out a jar of Grandma’s buttons and went to work finding the perfect ones. I settled on an antique silver one and some pearly looking ones.

It’s hard to see in the picture, but I used 32 gauge silver wire to “sew” the button onto the top of the paperclip.

Long story short, one sewn button paperclip was enough.

I secured two “pearl” iridescent buttons to the other paperclips with a simple jump ring from my jewelry stash. They do move freely about on the clip when not in use but dangle nicely once clipped.

Third Times a Charm

If I can attach buttons with jump rings, I should continue the trend and use them for some charms. I had a few sets of tag-like charms I had been wanting to use. Each set had 3 different words. This set worked best for today’s project.

Imagine. Believe. Create.

Plain old jump rings were not going to cut it for this one. Check out those flower-like jump rings! Super cute but pain in the butt to work with.

Like the button clips, the charms will move about when not in use.

Pom Poms

Now for my favorite paperclip topper… pom poms! I love them so much I found 5 ways to make pom poms. The Clover Pom Pom maker is by far my favorite and only way I do it, today’s project included.

I used the 2 extra small sized makers (you can find them below). So little! Penny sized =)

Make your pom poms. Don’t cut the ends of the tie string.
Use the tails to knot a few times around the end of a paperclip.
Voila! Pom pom perfection!

I’m so glad I saved these ones for last because if I had lead with them it’s probably all I would have made ;)

So there you have it! Five ways to dress up your paperclips.

Which one was your favorite?

And if you just need to buy cute paperclips, check out my favorites below.

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