Crafting ideas - How to make a skull butterfly hair clip

by Rossana

Rossana shows you how to make a cute skull butterfly hair clip from scratch. Whether you love Mexico's Day of the Dead, or candy colours, or have watched Blue Velvet too many times and associate blue skies and cute robins with Bad Things, these charming skull accessories will delight your fiercely beating little heart. And Rossana not only sells these pretty things, she has one to give away to the first person who emails her!

Tools for making skull butterfly hair clip

• any flower design you like
• strong glue
• polymer clay (recommended) or air dry clay
• a piece of red fabric
• a hair clip
• feather butterfly
• paint (not pictured)
• surface clear coat (not pictured)

How to make the skull

Hand sculpt the polymer clay to a sphere then press it into a skull shape, any size you prefer.

Next, find tools that can make circle shapes for the eyes. And look around for tools that will imprint whichever shape you like best for the nose and mouth. I used basic clay tools since I have them around, but a pencil or fork would work well too.

One point to remember for polymer clay is that it needs to be baked for 30 minutes at 275 degrees in the oven in order for it to harden - so that's what you do once you've made your skull shape (or make a few of these hair clips in one go for yourself and friends).

You can paint the skull once it's hardened or leave it plain. I generally paint all my polymer clay skulls with pearl metallic paint then use glossy black paint for the eyes, nose, and mouth. I also put a surface clear coat at the end to protect the clay.

How to make the flower

Cut a piece of fabric to cover the back of the flower and to hold part of the clip. I used red petals and cut the fabric into a heart. In addition, i used E6000. This glue is very strong and clear. Yes, it will leave a bit of a stain on some parts but that doesn't matter as I'm only using it on the back side. The strength of the glue is what matters!

Oh, and it goes without saying that you can make your flower any size and use any colours you like. It makes no difference to the skull, after all...

And so... a hair clip

Lastly, glue the skull on top of the feather butterfly then glue the butterfly on top of the flower.

Give the hair clip a little time for the glue to dry.

Then, finally, your own skull butterfly clip is read to wear.

Grigio Designs Friendly Competition:

• I would love to see any works - if you make these clips, or send me any drawings (just email me via my blog) I'll post them on my blog, so get in touch...
• Oh, and the hair clip I created for this tutorial is up for grabs for Mookychick readers. Simply email me and the first one to say they want the clip will have it sent to them in the post!
• The possibilities are endless for you to create whatever look your heart desires. Have fun.

More: Arts & Crafts, How-Tos and Odd Hobbies on Mookychick