bunhead bobby pins
Bunheads for bunheads! Dancers have long embellished bobby pins with tiny flowers, beads and rhinestones to dress up their buns. But I’m going to suggest we take things to the next level. Let’s shove tiny disembodied heads in our hairdos!
Supplies:
- small wooden beads – about 1/2 inch in diameter
- bobby pins
- mini pom poms
- sequins (my fancy sequins came in a grab bag I bought at Michael’s)
- teeny tiny rhinestones
- craft paint
- small paint brushes
- strong glue
- skewer or toothpick
- pencil
- scissors
1. Paint the beads any colour/ethnicity you like, and allow to dry completely. It may take 2-3 coats. You can also leave them plain.
2. Glue the bead to the rounded end of a bobby pin. (I used E6000, as it holds well.) Use a skewer to line the inside of the bead and cover the top of the bobby pin with glue, then slide the bead down. Don’t go too far – you want most of the bobby pin free for securing to hair. Wipe off any excess glue and allow to dry completely before embellishing. Clipping the pins to a box keeps them upright when drying glue/paint at the various stages of assembly.
3. Sketch the hair and a face with a pencil. This isn’t necessary if you feel you can freehand with paint.
4. Paint on the hair and face. I kept mine simple, but if you’re artistic you could go crazy here.
5. Glue a mini pom pom to the top of the bead, covering the bead hole.
6. Cut a sequin in half and glue it to the front of the mini pom pom. A skewer helps with the application of glue.
7. Glue a tiny rhinestone to the sequin. Again, a skewer or toothpick helps here.
You could skip the sequin, and simply use rhinestones to dress up your little friend’s bun. Teeny tiny flowers would be nice too!
Clipping the pins to a box keeps them upright when drying glue/paint at the various stages of assembly.
I brought some of these bobby pins to class last week, and the girls went bonkers for them. The girls, by the way, are in my Advanced ballet class. THEY AREN’T LITTLE CHILDREN – most of them are taller than me. Clearly these have ageless appeal!
(If you’re into ballet crafts, you might also like these Ballerina Peg Dolls!)
I can’t even stand how adorable these are! Love that you made them in different ethnicities – now if only my hands were steady enough to pull this off!
Mellissa, I have the world’s shakiest hands. Most of the time, people think I’m freezing, extremely nervous, or suffering from major withdrawal tremors. (Paired with my sallow complexion, the drug angle seems pretty legit.) Sadly, it isn’t drug related.
WAIT. Maybe drugs would help?
these are so ridiculously cute. i’m in my 30s and i’d rock them. even though i’m currently sporting short hair…
These really ARE adorable! So much I wish I had stopped chopping my hair off.
I keep trying to let it grow, but it gets to that in-between, super-yucky, can’t do anything with it stage. Now I know – make some cute bunhead bobby pins to control the drab head.
And also hope winter DOES finally end, so I won’t do things to my hair out of boredom.
Already I bleached my ‘grey hair that was dyed brownish’ to white. Anymore snow and I can’t be responsible for what I’ll do…
I am willing my hair to turn more silver. Right now, it’s a bit… patchy. Though 2.0 does like to call me The Silver Fox!
“Let’s shove tiny disembodied heads in our hairdos!” Why the hell not?! And what took us soooo long?
Love these! I’m going to have to make some for my little bunhead. You can get paint pens that would work like a charm for the eyes/mouth too.
PAINT PENS! Why don’t I have paint pens? They’d be right up my alley!
Paint pens are the best thing that ever happened to my crafting life. And glue guns.
This are just way too much adorableness! Maybe I need one more snow day so I can attempt these.
Can I just borrow one iota of your craftiness? These are adorable!!!
wow I’m so far behind on blog reading…these are so cute! I love your little crafts 🙂 Now if only I knew how to put a bun in my hair…
These are adorable! I want long hair so I can wear them.
Ok that’s it. Mine are going to be all zombies.
Because dancers love braaaaaaains…
i miss you already and also i would like to know how i can acquire some of these for my hair. minus the “having to make them” part 😉
i’ll be making like, an obscene amount of these for myself and my wee one – what a great way to practice faces for peg dolls too! seriously, if i took a photo of myself right now? a bun. a high, ballet bun b/c i like to walk around wearing black running tights and long off the shoulder sweaters so everyone just assumes i’m an off-duty ballerina. these would complete the look without me having to wear a full leotard.
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Here’s an idea: If you clip the bobby pin onto a piece of hair-colored pipe cleaner, fold the pipe cleaner in half at the bobby pin, twist it and then thread it through the bead during the glue stage (slide it through until it’s at a length shorter than the width of the bead before adding glue to the bead hole, the last bit of pipe cleaner and the eye of the bobby pin), then you won’t have to sacrifice as much bobby pin to the inside of the bead, it will have a stonger bond (think rebar), and if you glue any of the remnant ends of the pipe cleaner that passed through the top into a spiral circle around where the pom pom will be attached, it will still blend in with the pom pom bun quite nicely.
I think I’m pickin’ up what yer puttin’ down! Excellent idea! I may have to do some experimenting in the near future…