Paperclips From Paper...On Clips

Yes.

I like how convenient online shopping is, but I don't like how misleading the product images can be, especially when it comes to the size of the product (I mean, who actually reads product descriptions anyway?).

So when my batch of paper-clips arrived, I realised they were unexpectedly large. And also glaringly neon, even though I have no memory of buying anything neon-coloured (does this happen to anyone else?).

They look a lot less offensive in photos

I immediately realised that they were perfect for a decorating activity. They were already ugly as it is, how much uglier could I possibly make them?

As it turns out, quite a bit.

They sure were a fun way to kill time though. If you're interested in how I went about creating these, read on!

Recipe

[Makes three (3) assorted specimens]

It was on the cool, breezy autumn evening of my 9th dog's (by accidental adoption, once removed) birthday that I had an epiphany; I realised that life was meaningless, and human stupidity an inviolably unending cycle.

But you just have to keep reminding yourself that there is beauty everywhere

Reminiscing about my previous attempts - I'd tried making these paperclips numerous times before (lies) - they always seemed to fall short of fulfilling my deepest, most secret desires for powdered cheese and friendship. There was that one missing ingredient, maybe two, but definitely less than seven, that would unfailingly elude my grasp in all my prior adventures; just beyond reach behind the thin mist of jumbled to-do lists and dreams of aliens in the Colosseum. That was the exact moment I had my second epiphany...

I remembered how, on a silent, stuffy night eerily similar to this, many moons ago.....okay, I'll stop now, sorry.

Gather yer ingredients

You'll need some scissors, some fairly thick and/or stiff craft paper of choice (I used handmade paper), foam, the paperclips, adhesive of choice (I prefer using double-sided tissue tape), googly eyes and any other embellishments you might want to use. I'll point out any other materials I may have used for each paperclip as we cover them.

I had a bunch of animal-shaped foam cutouts with me, and I decided to decorate one of the clips with one.

1. Rebel Enlightened Monkey

After careful consideration, I chose this neon orange monkey cut-out to clash horribly with the neon green paperclip that I was going to decorate.

The Chosen One

I decided it would need a background, and so set about cutting out from the craft paper cartoonish trees and the like with my scissors.

Fairly quick to accomplish since the edges of the cutouts are mostly either curved or blunt.

Once I had my few pieces in place, I pasted them on to a blank white sheet of paper with my trusty tissue tape (you could use whichever adhesive you prefer). This white sheet would form the sky for my scenery, as well as double as a backing paper with which to stick the whole scene onto the clip.

Quaint

I tried to make sure, while making the cutouts and placing them together, that the overall width of the scenery should not be much wider than the clip (but should still be full and wide enough to cover much of the clip's actual colour).

Background in place, we can now place our protagonist in it. Which is what I did.

Viva la revolucion!

Stick some googly eyes on, if you have them, or draw some on!

Overall this looked kind of cute to me, honestly. But since I can't keep anything in my life uncomplicated, I decided to give the monkey a third googly eye and a mohawk (cut from black handmade paper). This would indicate that this was a Special Monkey, one that had attained some form of nirvana.

"I bring you the light!"

In hindsight, the monkey was probably meant to be hanging from a tree (hence the "raised" fist), and not causing a ruckus in the forest clearing with unreasonable demands of change from the status quo (and a new haircut).

After cutting this out to shape (leaving a bit of the white to show through as the sky), I plonked it on to the clip with double-sided foam tape (to give it a little pop), and that's it! Paperclip # 1 completed!

"...why am I alive in this universe, again?"

The profile remains visibly neon, however.

It's what's on the (in)side that counts

It's grown on to me now. I will definitely be using it (and hopefully coming up with a different backstory for our protagonist monkey every time I do).

2. Watermelons Make For Better Tin-Foil Hats in the Summer

In case you don't have ready-made foam cutouts on hand, worry not! You can simply cut out your own. Here are the materials I used for this next one - scissors, adhesive, googly eyes, foam and a pen (or any marking tool).

Contrary to immediate notions, I did not actually use the punch

When cutting out shapes freehand, it's a lot easier to work with designs which are simple, with minimal details, and with rounded or long edges. Think flowers with a few rounded petals, ladybugs, a little hut or pandas.

I went with an owl. Using a gel pen, I drew the outline of an owl.

Owltline on foam

Then, I placed a piece of white paper on top of the drawing while the ink was still wet, and gently and carefully pressed onto the design. This gave me a rough impression of the foam's outline onto the white sheet. Since foam is pretty squishy, the transfer image can get distorted if you press too hard.

I re-drew over the impression, and now had a template on which to draw specific features that I wanted to cut out from different coloured foam. I settled for the bit below the eyes, the beak, its wings and a necktie.

This owl means business

Cutting them out, I realised I didn't really need to make a separate template for the beak - any old small triangle would do just fine. I went ahead and used the templates as a guide to cut out various pieces from a sheet of green foam. I then lined them up against the drawing of the owl on the foam, just to see if they fit nicely, and trimmed adjustments where necessary.

Always wear a mask when stepping outside

I pasted these separate pieces onto the owl base and cut the whole thing out to size (you can, of course, cut out the base first and then stick on the pieces - whatever makes more sense to you). I wasn't happy with how I cut out the piece that was for right below the eyes, so I decided to turn it into a watermelon hat instead (they keep your head cool in the heat). I also roughly snipped out a couple of strips of foam for the legs, and stuck them on.

After drawing in some detailing with the pen, I added the googly eyes and found that I had too little space left for the beak. Oh well.

This owl had seen too much

Next, I cut out a tree and a couple of branches from the handmade paper again, and used it as a background for the owl. Once the owl was plonked onto this background, I stuck the whole thing on to the paperclip with double-sided foam tape, thus finishing my second piece of Art.

"Tree"

Finally, it is done

3. Does This Metallic Wax Go On Plastic?

[Hint: No.]

For the third and final clip, I decided to try something completely different - apply a base colour and add a couple of punched-out butterflies (please do not mistake this for an approval of violence. Violence is not cool). All I needed for this was a metallic wax, and a craft punch.

Behold

Picking one of the atrociously pink paperclips, I applied a coat of the metallic wax, to give it a more sobered, textured look. I have a sneaking suspicion this will not stay on the shiny smooth plastic surface for long.

But it looks cool

Then I punched out a few butterflies from black cardboard paper with the craft punch, stuck them on strategically placed, and yay, done! That was ridiculously quick. This time, I needed to use liquid craft glue, as the foam tape just kept picking up the wax and sliding off (I should have waited for the wax to dry, probably).

Clean fingers, messy butterflies

As I'd suspected, the wax wasn't really meant for plastic surfaces. Whatever got stuck to my fingers went right on to the butterflies as I placed them. Thankfully, they didn't look too out of place.

This wax works wonders on metal and resin. But not plastic. This is one clip I will not be using unless I'm in the mood to spread joyous glitter to everything else I touch.

And that, friends, was an awesome hour and some spent on just having some fun.

Hurray!