Easy Pin Toppers

Have you ever been on Etsy and drooled over the cute and creative pin toppers?  When I was putting together my pin cushion and some goodies for the Scrappy Pin Cushion Swap I wanted to include some decorative pin toppers but could find any that were suitable for the flamingo theme I was going for.  That meant I was going to have to make my own or more on, but you know how it is when you have something in your mind and you need to see it through.  So since there is no way I would be able to mold any thing out of clay, never mind the fact it would have to be on a miniature scale.  I decided to head over to Michael's and see what I could find.   



The bead section was my first stop but honestly I couldn't find anything that I likes or matched my theme.  Besides I didn't really want to just glue a bead to the top of a pin.  I figured it would be lame and look cheesy, but after searching the store I was back in the bead department.  But this time the creative juices were flowing and  realized if I could find extra long pins and if I could pop the heads off, the right bead just might work.  Then I found these.  They were perfect, and see how it makes a simple pin cushion look all fancy. 

These are the things I used to make my Pin Toppers.  I found the extra long pins at Wal-mart of all places.  (Jo-Anns just didn't have what I was looking for.)  The beads at Michael's, the pliers out of my husbands tool bag and the super glue I had hanging around the house. 

First with the pliers I popped the off the yellow flower heads.  This step was hard to picture but you understand right?  Hold the pin with the needle nose pliers and the flower with the other pair of pliers, then pull.  They come off fairly easy with a little muscle.  Just be careful not to bend your pins.

Then stick the end of the pin in the super glue so you have a good bead of glue on the end.

Stick your pin in the bead and slide back and forth to distribute the glue evenly.  Then let the glue set per manufacturers direction.  Once they had set I gave the pins tops a good tug to make sure they weren't going anywhere.  Just to be safe.

Since these were going to have to go through the mail I couldn't just leave them in the pin cushion so I made a large matchbook out of cardstock and felt.  I love how they came out and if you are not a regular follower of my blog here is what I sent my swap partner with a couple of fat quarters.