DIY shoe clips made with ric-rac, felt, and a glue gun

I have these fabulous Mary Jane pumps. I've had them for years. I love them to pieces. I knew I was going to wear them for my wedding. I'm wearing a black dress with white and black accents in my hair. But where can I fit in a pop of yellow to fit with our colors of turquoise and yellow? Insert DIY shoe clips!

After searching Pinterest and Google, I found tutorials for using ric-rac to make flowers. They were the perfect pop of color I needed. So here's what you need if you want to make some ric-rac flower shoe clips (although it's not limited to your shoes because you can use these for anything).

What you'll need:

• Ric-rac ribbon: I ended up using about 50 inches of yellow ric-rac (it's all I had leftover), cut into two strips of 12 inches in length, two strips of 10 inches in length, and cutting in half what I had left over. For the bigger flowers, go with 12 inches, but you can make them any size.
• 2 hair clips
• Scraps of felt
• Scraps of fabric for leaves (but felt can be used as well)
• A pair of shoes to clip flowers to
• Scissors
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks (probably just two, unless you want to go on a gluing frenzy)
• A refreshing beverage (optional)
• Awesome crafting music (optional, not featured in photo)

How to make them:

Step 1: Cut your ric-rac into two strips. Measure them out at either 12 inches for bigger flowers, or 10 inches for slightly smaller ones.

Step 2: Turn two strips so they are opposite of each other.

Step 3: Start by braiding the strips of ric-rac. I read in one tutorial the blogger would chant “over, under, over, under” as she braided and while it sounds silly, it might make this a little more fun. Songs = fun.

As you're braiding the ric-rac, it should look like this halfway through. Continue until you reach the end.

Step 4: At the ends you'll want to put a little dab of hot glue to prevent the braid from coming undone.

Step 5: The next step is to roll the braid up. You just roll it straight from end to the other end.

Then glue the tail end underneath the flower to secure it.

Step 6: Grab a tiny square of felt and cut a circle from it, then hot glue the felt circle to the bottom of the flower. Repeat steps 1-7 for additional flowers.

Step 8: At this point you'll want to cut out your leaves from felt or other fabric. I cut a small rectangle, folded it, and then cut half a leaf shape out.

Step 9: I preferred to cover my hair clip in a strip of felt for sturdiness and give everything a base to adhere to since my leaves were flimsy fabric. It's hard to describe how I wrapped the clip with the felt, so hopefully this is one of those pictures that speaks more than words.

Step 10: Play around with the position of your leaves and flowers until you find something that you like. Once you're happy, hot glue everything in place starting with the leaves then adding your flowers. For the clip I used, I could only fit two flowers on it, but if you were to cut a cardboard circle out and cover it in felt, you could easily add more.

Final notes: You can leave the flowers as they are and they would look good. You also have the option of flipping down the edges slightly to create a more open look. Here's what one flower looks like in its original form and one where the petals are flipped down.

And there you have it! Adorable shoe clips to dress up my favorite shoes without being permanent. The options for this idea are limitless. You can make hair accessories, necklaces, rings, shirt or belt additions, or fancy cat or dog wedding collars. I wish you luck and fun in your crafting endeavor!