With the disappointment of the blooming branches project, I had slightly higher hopes for this one. Spoiler alert!  It is a much better project.

Instead of gluing punched flowers to sticks, here we make some bobby pins with them.  The ones Martha has in her book are kind of meh, but I thought they could turn out pretty cute with the right fabric and punch.

In case you were jonesing for some fruitless shopping, I can hook you up.  This particular project calls for floral pips.  Floral pips, you say?  What is a pip, you say?  Oh, you are such a pip!

A pip is a wire with a bulgey, colored end that is used as a stamen in making fake flowers.  Every time I go to Michaels, I marvel at their fake flower assortment.  Now, granted, I’m not really a artificial flower kind of girl, but is there really that big of a market for all those different kinds of fake flowers?  I always considered it a waste of a few aisles of space.

So naturally, I figured there would be rows and rows of pips there, too.  Guess what?  NO PIPS.  They sell the flowers, but not the parts to make the flowers.  Oh good grief.  Where on earth do you find the parts to make artificial flowers?  Even if I knew, I wasn’t about to go to another store, so I bought a bunch of fake flowers meant for some kind of wedding project, and they had lots of pips in them that I decided I could dismantle.  Turned out to not be that easy, but I digress.

Punch the flowers out, then make a hole in the center for your pip(s), and then “hand-stitch blooms to bobby pins or combs.”  Alright, hold the phone.

Backing up to our definition of pips, we see that they are wires with a tip.  And if I’ve just stuck said wire through the middle of the flower, why can’t I just wire the flower to the bobby pin?  Why the hand-stitching?  And how exactly am I supposed to stitch the flower without leaving unsightly stitches on the front?

Again with the extra work, Martha.  Sheesh!

I just wired mine on.  Here’s a little collage of the progress:

Finished product:

So, like, still kinda meh.  I used one of Martha’s own punches.  I felt, though, that I wanted it to be bigger, bolder, something more interesting.  So I used some of the die cuts I use for my hair clip business, and I went to town with my own take on this project.

Much better, in my opinion.  I think the pips are a bust.  They are very old fashioned looking, hard to find, and just look cheap.  I like my version with a nice little Swarovski crystal in the center much better.  And those you can find easily at Michaels.

Did you notice Caesar got in this photo?

I liked this clip so much that I’m selling versions of it in my shop!  For the fall, I’ve added suede and leather options and some other fun patterned fabric.

TIME INVESTED

About 30 minutes (plus a minimum 1 hour dry time for the fabric stiffener)

DIFFICULTY

Easy

TOTAL COST

• fabric charm pack, $9.99
• pip collection, $2.29
• fabric stiffener, $5.00
• Martha Stewart flower punch, $9.99
• bobby pins, $1.75

Total = $ 29.02

WAS IT WORTH IT?

Definitely, if you do it your own way.  You could easily hand-cut some funky flower shapes in a bigger size.  I think the punches don’t work that well because most of them are relatively small.  You need something a little more substantial, I think, when you are using thin fabric as a medium.  But they would make great gifts or you could make a ton of variations for all your outfits.

See ya at number 57!

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