Beaded Pins and Whimsical Dinosaur Pinsushion

Aren’t you all loving the Scrap Busting Extravaganza?? I sure am!! One of my favorite parts is getting to see so many different ideas – all sorts of fun ways for using up fabric, paper and today we have the cutest idea for beads!!

My sweet friend Emi from Small Good Things is joining us today with the most fun pincushion and pins ever!!

Emi is a genius at jewelry making, nail art, pretty crafts and vintage styling – and all things whimsical and fun!! I am so in love with her awesome style!

Hello there, Flamingo Toes readers! I’m Emi from Small Good Things, and I’m super excited and over the moon to be a part of Scrap Busting Extravaganza!

I’m going to introduce two super-easy tutorials today; one shows how to prettify dressmaker pins with odd bits of beads, and another one shows how to make a pin cushion out of plastic toy and leftover felt balls (or scrap fabric).

OK, first with dressmaker pins. I found these smiley pins over at my local 100 yen shop ($1/£1 shop to you) the other day, and well… They sure were cute, but I got kind of intimidated how smiley they were. I mean, just LOOK AT THEM. So I decided to transform half of them into something pretty (and un-smiley).

I’ve been making and using dressmaker pins with pretty beads heads for a while now, and got to ask how to make them on my blog a few times. I think it’s a very neat way to use up leftover beads and beads that you like but don’t seem to mix well with other beads. So, let’s get started, shall we?

What You’ll Need:

• dressmakers pins
• wire cutter
• beads
• strong glue

(not in the photo)

• plastic bag
• flat-nose pliers
• small piece of Styrofoam

Instructions:

1) Snip off plastic heads (good-bye, smiley!) with wire cutters. Please do this process inside a plastic bag, or else you’ll find small bits of plastic everywhere and you and your family will hate me. I’ve snipped off small plastic pearl heads before, and they especially flies like mad.

2) Using a pair of pliers, bend the tip of pins so that the beads won’t slide off. Arrange beads until you are happy with the look.

3) Add a drop of glue at the top of pins, slide the beads the rest of the way, then add tiny bit of glue again around beads at the bottom. Place the pins on Styrofoam so that they hung in slight upside-down way. Set aside until the glue is set.

And you’re done already! These are so easy and pretty, and perfect for gifts as well :) I’m so happy to see these beads getting the limelight, too!

OK, let’s move on to the second tutorial!

I cannot not buy cute plastic toys (the above are just a selection…!) – my obsession with plastic animals started with this DIY Party Animal Necklaces post (yes, Bev, you’re totally responsible for it!!! Though I’m constantly thinking of new and cute ways to incorporate these plastic pals to my projects, they just seem to multiply instead.

Anyway, you need a sturdy plastic animal/dinosaur to use as a pin cushion, and it should comfortably stand on its own feet (I mean physically. No worries for giving moral or monetary support).

What You’ll Need:

• plastic toy
• drill
• leftover felt balls and wool roving (or scrap fabric and stuffing)

(not in the photo)

• fretsaw and files

Instructions:

1) OK, I used a hand drill at first, but it wasn’t going anywhere – if you have a power drill and a hole saw, you are lucky and it should be perfectly fine. I didn’t have any of them, so I ended up using a fretsaw. I also smoothed out the opening with files.

2) Gently pull off a tuft from the wool roving and lay them in the cavity.

* You could also make a pin cushion with scrap fabric and stuffing. Make a cushion that fits the cavity, add a drop of glue at the bottom, and place it inside the cavity. Your work is done!

3) Place felt balls inside the cavity. I was going to needle-felt the balls and wool roving at the bottom, but the balls were packed very tightly and they didn’t shift, so I decided not to. And… yes, you’re done!

I love how it turned out, and hope you’re as excited as I am!!

I got the dino from a 100 yen shop (I know, again!) and really didn’t like his colour at all – I was going to paint him in bright pink or gold at first, but now I’m happy with the natural (-ish) look.

And here are my all-star pin cushions. I have a thing or two for plastic toys and pin cushions, I know! The left one at the bottom is an egg cup + felt ball, in case you’re wondering (and I have no idea what the animal is).

If you are tempted to make the alpaca pin cushion above, hop on to this tutorial – again, it’s super easy to make, and you can replace the felt ball to fabric & staffing for a pin cushion.

Or maybe you are interested in making this felt ball mat?

I’m also crazy about nail art, and I have many tutorials and round-up for inspiration!

Jewellery making is my forte (like this freshwater pearl and gold tube necklace), and hope you’ll find more crafty inspirations over on my blog :)

Hope you enjoyed my beaded pins & plastic toy pin cushion tutorials, and found some inspirations to give your scrap some crafty love! Last but not least, thanks so much for having me on this super fun event, Bev!

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Emi!! This is just about the most fun ever and now I’m going to be hunting up plastic animals to cut up. And I’m definitely going to be dressing up my pins – those are gorgeous. I love it so much!! :)  Thanks for being a part of the Scrap Busting Extravaganza!