Clothespins - Easy Dye and Coasters!

5 Materials
$3
4 Days
Easy
It's easy to dye clothespins with food coloring. After you dye them, make them into coasters or other projects!

You'll need:


A bowl
A measuring cup
Food coloring
vinegar
clothespins


*for coasters - adhesive of your choice.
Pull apart your clothespins. This is to prevent your metal from rusting in the vinegar water.
Put boiling water in a bowl. For this recipe I'm using 2 cups boiling water per bowl.
Add 1 tablespoon vinegar per bowl.
Add enough food coloring drops to make the color you want. You can mix colors too. I'm doing red, blue, and purple.
Stir and add your clothes pins in. I put in about 20 clothes pins per bowl.
Let them soak for 24 hours.
Pull the clothes pins out and let air dry. This took about 2 days stacked they way they are in this picture.
When they are dry the color fades a bit and gives them more of a stained wood look.
For teacher appreciation week for all the dance teachers I work with, I used these to make coasters. I used hot glue to adhere them, but you could use a glue of your choice.
Mix and match your clothespins for different coaster designs. I used about 6 clothes pins per coaster.
Once the glue has dried they're ready to use.
I'll be making this and more items with clothespins on Hometalk's Facebook Live Tuesday, May 30th at 5pm EST.
I'll be making this and more items with clothespins on Hometalk's Facebook Live Tuesday, May 30th at 5pm EST.
I would love to have you stop by my blog    Chas' Crazy Creations  for the full tutorial as well as sign up for my latest creations, posts, recipes, exclusives, and more...


I would love for you to subscribe to my YouTube channel to see more of my crazy creations - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIOsMN7hycVRco-MROXwmXg
Suggested materials:
  • Clothespins   (Walmart or Dollar Tree)
  • Food Color   (Dollar Tree)
  • Vinegar   (Dollar Tree, Walmart, or Grocery Store)
See all materials
Chas' Crazy Creations
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  2 questions
  • Dorenda Flanagan Dorenda Flanagan on May 08, 2018

    i really like this idea and I’m going to try it. I have a question: would a couple of coats of Mod Podge be ok to protect the colors and in case something was spilled on the coaster?

  • Christy Roppel Christy Roppel on Feb 16, 2021

    Love this Chas! I do have a question: Does the heat from the mug melt the glue?

    Thanks! :)

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