Teri Anderson

I pride myself on being a Do-It-Yourself kind of gal.

Well, at least when it comes to paper crafting. Let’s not talk about my ongoing bathroom rehab project!

I find it real fulfilling to raid my crafty stash every so often and make a few unique embellishments for my cards and paper crafting projects.

Most recently, I’ve been making stick pins. You don’t need a whole lot to make a pretty stick pin.

You just need a few beads, scraps of ribbon, paper and stick pins.

The easiest way to decorate up a pin is to add beads to it.

Here are two I recently made:

I started with pins with pearls already on them. Corsage pins in the floral department of most craft stores work great for this.

I applied a thin layer of glue to the pins. I prefer Super Glue. It is clear and really strong. And since I intended to use them on a card and not a scrapbook page, I did not have to worry about things being acid-free.

Then, I added a few beads. I was able to use the pins right away to make this card:

If you are feeling adventurous, you can also use ribbon and paper to make pretty pins.

I made the ribbon pin here by adding a bead to the pin. I then folded the ribbon and poked the pin through the ribbon over and over.

I made the pink pin with patterned paper. I randomly pierced holes in a strip of patterned paper and then wove the pin through them. I added a small dab of glue at the bottom of the paper, just to keep things nice and tight.

When I was finished, I put the pins on this card:

Have you made any fun embellishments lately?

Leave a comment here by midnight (MDT) on Thursday, April 15 and you could win one of two packs of beaded pins made by me. You’ll also get a copy of Paper Crafts’ May/June 2010 issue that has an excellent feature on DIY embellishments. For this feature’s two online bonus projects, click HERE for Sherry Wright’s Spring Fence Wall Hanging and HERE for Vanessa Menhorn’s Happy Birthday to You Card.

Teri Anderson,
Paper Crafts Go-to-Gal

P.S. Have a paper-crafting question that has you stumped? Send it to gotogals@papercraftsmag.com and it could be answered and published in a future issue. If your question is selected, we’ll send you a complimentary magazine! Disclaimer: Due to the large quantity of questions we received, not all will be answered.