Tutorial - Faery Magnets

I love Faeries. Not only do I love them, I love crafting them. Here is a tutorial that I had written for the February Fairies event over at The Whimsical Cottage. In case you missed the original posting, here it is again. I'll also be adding it to my tutorial page. So get ready for some faery fun!!

We're going to make Faery Clothes Pin Magnets.

For this project, you will need:

Wooden clothes pin (the No Roll kind)

Craft paint or any kind of acrylic paint

Embroidery floss

Sand paper 220 grit

Magnet strip

Glue (I used E6000, any strong glue will work)

Wire (20 - 22 gauge)

Drill/dremel

1/16 drill bit

Extra bits (paper, fabric scraps, flowers, beads, etc)

Wire cutters

Round nose pliers

Scissors

Pencil

Paint brush

Small piece of card stock (for hair construction)

What you may want:

Tweezers

Small eye hooks

Vice/clamp (for holding the clothespin while drilling)

Safety glasses

Mask (for dust)

Step 1:

Determine which side of your clothespin you want as the front. With your sand paper, sand the front edges of the clothes pin a little bit to round the edges. You can sand the edges a lot if you wish, but it’s not necessary. Also sand any rough spots on the clothespins.

You may find that after sanding the edges of the clothespin, you loose a little bit of definition between the sections of the pin. Take a small piece of sand paper, folded it, and gently sanded in the crease of the clothespin, especially at the front, to bring back a bit of definition lost during the majority of the sanding.

Step 2:

With your pencil, determine where you want the holes for the arms drilled. Once you have determined where you want the hole, draw a small dot. It’s best to put the dot as close to the center of the clothespin as possible. Repeat for the other side, eye balling to make sure they are even. Rule of thumb: You want the hole you drill for the arms to be slightly larger than your wire, no larger.

Be very careful and use a slow speed when drilling. Hold the drill straight up and down. Drill your hole all the way through the clothespin. You may need to sand the hole a touch after drilling to remove the flaked wood. Touch up with skin tone paint if needed.

Step 3:

Now we're ready to paint. Whatever color you are using as a skin tone, go ahead and give your faery a coat of paint. There's no need to worry about painting the back, unless you are making a hanging faery. For my faery, I used light flesh tone paint. After the first coat of paint is dry, give it a second coat.

Step 4:

When your paint is dry, it is time to add the arms. Use your wire cutters and cut a piece of wire 5 – 6 inches in length. With your round nose pliers, grasp one end of the wire tightly and curl the end of the wire with the tip of the pliers to make a hand.

Insert the uncurled end of the wire into the drilled hole and pull through. Determine the length of arm you wish your faery to have, bend at the shoulder to secure the desired length. Bend at the shoulder for the other arm. Clip the excess wire and curl the end into the second hand. Half way up the arm, make a second bend for the elbow.

Step 5:

Take your pencil and lightly draw the facial features. (At this point, if you wish for your faery to hang, screw your eye hook in the center top of your clothespin until finger tight). Once you have a rough idea of how the face will look, it’s time to give your faery a bit of hair. I choose to give my faeries hair at this point because it helps me to visualize the faery's final personality and what they will look like in the end.

For this step, choose a color of embroidery floss for the hair. Cut a small length of your hair color and set it aside. Take your cardstock, hold it in one hand and begin to wrap the floss loosely around the cardstock starting at the bottom and wrapping upward. Continue to wrap a total of 15 times. Once you have finished wrapping (making sure you finished wrapping at the bottom of the cardstock), cut the remainder of the floss and set aside. Take your small length that you had cut previously and feed it between the cardstock and floss. Slide the floss to the top of your wrapped floss and tie tightly. Remove your wrapped floss from the cardstock and cut the loops of thread opposite your tied knot.

Step 6:

Arrange your “floss wig” so that the knot is on the underside, make sure you keep the 2 sections of hair even. Place a generous amount of glue on the top of your faery's head. With the knot in the center of the head, press your wig into the glue and arrange your hair, making sure you cover all exposed sides.

Step 7:

Now the fun part. Let your imagination go and have fun with it. This is also the point you will begin to decide what type of faery you wish to create if you didn’t already have an idea in mind once you began. Don't be afraid to layer different elements to create your faery.

I've decided mine was to be a Woodland Faery. For this one, I painted the faery's top green. I then glued a piece of green fabric I had cut into the shape I wanted, then roughed up the edges a bit. I layered a piece of leather I had fashioned into a belt with a tiny gold bead as a clasp.

For the wings, you can use paper, feathers, lace, fabric flower petals, etc. For my faery, I used an acetate butterfly that came with some scrapbook embellishments. I cut the butterfly in half and glued each section onto the back of my faery. Once the glue has dried, cut the strip of magnet into the length you want and glue that onto the back of your faery. Finish off by painting your faery's little face and add a bit of embellishment if you wish.

And there you are! A cute finished faery of your very own!

The different faery possibilities are endless! Have fun with it!!