Easiest Craft Ever

Well, we made it back home from Christmas - we managed to avoid the big "blizzard" here in OKC but we did get a little snow at my mom and dad's house. I'm spending the day getting reacquainted with my toilet (anti-nausea meds don't seem to be working too well today for some reason) so I thought in my "downtime" I'd catch up a little.

DISCLAIMER: I GOT THIS IDEA FROM TV (MOST LIKELY RACHAEL RAY) - I DID NOT COME UP WITH IT BY MYSELF...I'm just not that creative. :)

I did a little craft for Christmas gifts for the girls at my office and for a couple of friends...and it's the easiest craft ever! I basically turned binder clips into picture holders...and I thought later, if I ever had a little brunch or dinner party or something, I could make place card holders out of these and they could be a little take home gift. Here's the step by step.


Start with the HUGE binder clips - I bought these at Wal-Mart, they come four to a box and MIGHT have cost $2/box.


These are the other supplies you'll need: patterned paper cut into strips (for the big binder clips like I used I cut them 2" x 4 3/8"), some sort of adhesive (I used glue dots at first, which worked fine but after finishing one I decided that it would take WAY too many of them so I switched to my Tombo adhesive strip...kinda like white-out tape but it's double-sided tape), and some sort of embellishments (ribbons, buttons, stickers, whatever - I used snowflake and classic Christmas brads).

Once I had the paper cut, I would kind of wrap it around the binder clip to make sure I had cut it right AND to get the paper "bent". Then I laid it out and applied the adhesive to both ends and to the middle. Start with one end and press the adhesive down to make sure it's good and stuck, then smooth it down towards the middle, fold the paper over the middle and press that adhesive, and then repeat for the final side. I applied the brads with glue dots. I thought about doing ribbon (just tied on to the silver part of the clip) but there are any number of things that would work.



Here's the finished product. I will probably make some more of these soon - a non-seasonal version. They were super easy and they don't take up a lot of room on a desk or counter top and it's easy to change out the picture too.


Here's a demonstration of how they work. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention...you can dip the ends of the silver part in that rubbery stuff you buy at the hardware store for tool handles. I think it keeps the picture from slipping. I intended to do this but there just wasn't time!