Make Your Own Paper Quilling Hair Clips

Learn some great tips on how to make your own paper quilling hair clips and other accessories!

Last year I was asked by a customer to create some hairclips with paper quilled designs on them.  I was excited about the idea, and began right away!  It was easy to start making some designs.  I then had to find some hairclips to adhere the desigsn to and figure out the best way to do so.  This is when the difficulties began!  Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes

The first thing I tried was to use a strong craft glue to glue the designs to regular metal snap hairclips.  Once dried the pieces immediately came apart.

Next I tried a hot glue gun, since I heard great things about them!  I searched out a good quality one and tried it out.  It seemed to work until I discovered that after opening and closing the clip a few times the hot glue detaches from the metal.

After seeking out some advice my next course of action was to try epoxy resin glue.  It was definitely a strong glue, but it was not flexible at all and it immediately snapped off of the metal clip as soon as it was opened.  oops!

At this point I began to feel quite discouraged.  But not ready to give up!  I decided to seek out a different type of snap hair clip and I ordered some that have little plastic pads on the end of them for gluing.  I impatiently waited 2 weeks for them to arrive.  As soon as they arrived I tried them with the epoxy resin.  I was once again disappointed.  Even though the epoxy resin does stick to the plastic pads, it still snapped off after opening and closing the clip a few times.  I guess epoxy resin is just not meant for flexible pieces!

I knew I was getting closer to a solution, so I tried two more things.  Lo and behold, both of them worked!!

The first idea that worked was to wind thread around the end of a plain metal snap hairclip.  I don’t have a photo, but I basically threaded a needle and wound it back and forth in an “X” shape around the end of the clip, through the two slits as well.  You could also do this with one of those metal snap clips that has a hole in the end.  I then used a hot glue gun to adhere the design to the clip.  The hot glue surrounds the threads to create a permanent and flexible bond.  Success!  It is not the most professional look, however, with the thread at the end.  It certainly works for your own clips at home, though!

Lastly I tried a hot glue gun with the clips with the plastic pad, and it worked better than I even hoped!!  The hairclips I finally made were sturdy and do NOT fall apart!

Here is the final list of how to make a great paper quilled hairclips:

1. Make your designs of choice.  (try some of these tutorials, or just solid circles work as well)

2. Set out your hairclips (with glue pad at the end) with your designs nearby (do NOT put sealant on your designs yet!!)

3. Heat up your hot glue gun.

4. Heat up the glue pad at the end of the hairclip.  I find the easiest way to do this is to touch the glue pad to the hot tip of the glue gun until it is warmed up (5-20 seconds, my hot glue gun has a rubber coating on the end, not sure if this would work if your glue gun has just a bare metal tip).  You could also just set them out in a sunny spot for awhile.  Heating up the plastic pad helps the hot glue to adhere more strongly.

5. Put a small blob of hot glue on the plastic pad. Stick one of your paper quilling designs onto the hot glue blob.  Be careful not to burn your fingers!!!

6. Let sit to dry.

7. Once they are dry, dip or paint the design with a sealant or varnish to make it water resistant and more sturdy.

Ta Da!

You can use this same method for making hair clips that have felt decorations at the end, or ribbons, anything really!

Look here for the materials used in this project: HoneysQuilling.com

Want to order ready made hair clips instead of making your own?  Check out my etsy shop!

Honey’s Hive

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