Handmade - Hat Pins

In fashion it is a well known adage that if you wait long enough, everything will come back into fashion again which no doubt explains millions of over-stuffed wardrobes around the world.
Scrapbooking borrows a great deal from the world of fashion in terms of colour combinations, trends, even tools and products, so it really is no surprise to see items from yesteryear making their way onto our scrapbook pages, cards and other craft creations.
One of these is of course "Hat Pins". A fashion icon from a bygone era when it was commonplace for women to wear hats with a hat pin of course to stop your hat from being blown away. These adornments are now making a resurgence in our crafting as personalised jewelery and embellishments. You can buy them pre-made from most craft stores or online craft shops - I will have a selection selected on my website soon - www.scrapfx.co.nz - or you can make them yourself with just a few jewelry making items and some quick drying glue.
There are two options for making hat pins:

• Using a pin such as a corsage pin available from most haberdashery shops, including Spotlight or a hat pin if you can find them.
• Using a jewelery head pin with either a flat head, loop head of ball head

Head pins - flat head, gold looped head, silver looped head & ball head (top to bottom)

Using a Corsage or Hat Pin:

As the pin already has in effect a bead (aka pin head) attached, you don't need to add a stopper bead (to stop all the other beads falling off) so you can get straight into threading your chosen beads and spacers onto the body of the pin. I recommend covering no more than 1/3 - 1/2 of the pin body with beads otherwise you may have difficulty with getting your pin to stay "pinned in" to your project.

Finish your beading selection with a small seed bead then dab around the bottom of this with a clear drying adhesive. I like Glossy Accents or Dimensional Magic for this job - usually as they are the handiest glues for the job on my crafting table.

Ensure you adhere the glue around the entire pin body to stop the seed bead from coming loose and allowing ALL your other beads to slide off as well.

Allow the glue to dry with the pin resting upside down so that the beads don't slide down the pin body during the drying process.

Once the glue is dry, the decorated hat pin can be pinned into any crafting project - scrapbook pages, cards or OTP project.

The two pins on the left were created on hat pins, while the other three were on flat head jewelery head pins.

These were all corsage pins. They all show adding a charm with a jump ring slipped over the pin body and held in place by the other beads. The red pins are from my "Twilight" Series.

Using a Jewelery Head Pin:

Many of the heads (tops) of head pins are quite small, so any larger beads may slide right off the pin unless you add a stopper bead to prevent this from happening. I like using a seed bead for this roll. You don't need to add glue to hold it in place like the bottom bead though.

Add a small seed bead to your pin before adding all your other beads and spacers as described above. Again finish with a seed bead and then secure all your beads in place with a small dab of glue around the body of the pin.

You can see a small seed bead at both the top and bottom of the pin on the left. The "stopper" bead prevents the other beads from falling off the end of the pin if they have a larger hole through the middle of the bead.


Variations:
Try colouring the pin head for a coordinated look. I recommend either a Copic Marker or a Slick Writer. The slick writers give the pin head almost a marbled look.

Add charms or tags - refer to the picture of the "Twilight" pins earlier in the blog.
If you are using a looped head pin you can simply attach a charm by securing it with a jump ring to the end of the head pin.
If you are using a corsage pin or non-loop head pin, attach the charm to a jump ring as before, then thread the jump ring over the body of the pin. Be sure to secure it in place with a bead on either side that is not small enough for the jump ring to slip over.
These pins a really simple to make - the hardest thing is deciding what colour and style of beads to use. You don't need any special tools either, another great bonus.