A Very "Hoppy" Birthday!

My good friend Skye's daughter just turned a year old! They are all growing up so fast...

I feel like just yesterday Skye, Michelle, and I were sitting in the van in the church parking lot after young women's talking about boys and school and whatnot. Now we're all moms with "grown-up" lives! It's all happening so quickly!

Thinking about what "Graham" (meaning Brandon and I) should get Andrea (that's Skye's daughter's name) for her birthday- I reflected back on Skye. (Because let's be honest. The presents aren't really FOR the one year olds.) When we were growing up, Skye was the very definition of a "tom-boy". She was against all things girly and I know it came as quite a shock to her when all three of us had our first children and she was the only one to end up with a girl. 

I know it was a tough mind-set adjustment for her- but I have to admit a year later she is doing an awesome job of raising a great little girl. :) (She even wears pink sometimes!) Skye and I had recently talked (At Michelle's baby shower for her second little boy!) about the hair clips generally sold for little girls. Skye was less than thrilled at the OVERLY "girly" selection. I know I've seen cute little dinosaur, robot, etc... hair clips around- but when I went to the store I found Skye was right and my only options were pink, hearts, flowers, ribbon, purple, and more pink.

blegh.

Pink is all and good sometimes- but ALL the time? I think not. So, I set-out to do what any crafter would do. I would MAKE some "cool" hair clips!  The task turned out to be easier in my head than in reality.  My "plain" hair-clip choices were limited and I settled on some polka-dotted clips.  Then Brandon and I scoured the store looking for anything "cool" that would be workable on a hairclip. 

We looked in the toy department, the scrapbook department, the craft department... and found nothing.  Finally- grasping at straws, we checked the party department and found these cute little frogs being sold as party favors. I was unsure- but Brandon convinced me of their awesomeness and I bought them.

When I got home, I carefully removed the hairclips from their cardboard holder. (I would be using the cardboard again to display my finished clips.) I then opened my little frogs and laid-out my supplies as my hot-glue gun warmed up. This is where my "creativity" would come into play.

I needed to select which frog would go on top of which hair clip.

I also double-checked that the frogs would fit on the hair clips without being excessively huge or awkward.  They happen to have nice flat bellies so that helped with the gluing process.

After each frog had a hair-clip mate, I set to gluing!

Important Tips for This Craft:

1.) Don't use too much glue. It looks tacky and you have to spend time peeling off the extra when it's cool. Also- dry hot glue can stick to hairs and pull them, making your hair clip uncomfortable to the wearer.

2.) Do not attempt to remove excess hot glue from your hairclips until the glue has dried.  Hot glue just becomes long skinny strings as you pull it. After the glue is dry it will snap right off and clean-up will be easier.

3.) Lay-out your frogs (or whatever you're using for decoration) on the hairclips before you glue, and make sure that if you are creating "pairs" that there is a decoration facing "up" on both directions... I hope that isn't too confusing.  Basically what I'm trying to say is- when you wear two hairclips- you put them on in opposite directions (for the opposite sides of your head). If your frogs aren't reversed, one of them will be upside-down when you go to wear them both at once. (Refer to how the clips were placed on the card when you bought them- imagine that all the decorations should be facing up.)

When I was done I carefully slid the frogs back on their card and voila!

A very "hoppy" birthday present! :)

Unfortunately Brandon caught a bug the day of Andrea's party so we weren't able to drive up... but hopefully we can get Andrea her clips soon and we can see how well they work functioning on an actual little girl's head.  I think they are adorable- but I'm concerned about the legs getting caught in her hair.  This project has my wheels turning thinking of what else I could glue on hairclips.  Little girls can get away with wearing all sorts of cool stuff in their hair. 

I wonder what my Middle Schoolers would think if I came in to teach with a little tree-frog propped on my head? I teach Science after all... ;)