Pin it! With these minimal DIY push pins

Why shouldn’t everyday objects be beautiful as well as practical?

I recently put together an inspiration (cork) board for myself but I wasn’t crazy about the basic plastic or metal push pins that you can buy. After all, they don’t look so great, do they? So I decided I needed to decorate the push pins and make them a bit prettier.

I’m a big fan of natural wood decor and when I spotted a pack of wooden balls in my craft cupboard, I realised these would look great as push pins – nice design and still as functional as they need to be. So that’s what I went with.

These minimal diy push pins are really simple to make and they look great on a cork board. It’s a simple little hack to upgrade an everyday object in to something a bit more special.

Minimal DIY push pins

Materials:
half drilled wooden balls approx 35-40mm with 8-9mm hole* (get similar here and US readers here)
clear plastic push pins* (get similar here and US readers here)
gorilla glue

*I’ve linked to similar products but of course make sure that the pushpins/thumb tacks are slightly smalller than the hole in the wooden balls. You can also go for larger or smaller wooden balls which won’t make a difference as long at the push pin heads are slightly smaller than the hole.

Tip: You can also use an IKEA cork memo board that comes with push pins as I’ve done before. Or any cork board with push pins as long as the size of the pins works.

Gorilla glue is cured with moisture. Squeeze a very small drop of gorilla glue in to the hole in the wooden ball. Dip the push pin in water and place in the hole.

You need to leave these dry for a good 2 hours. And you’re done.

A few tips to keep in mind:
– I found the best way to create the firmest bond was to pin the balls on to a piece of cork and leave them to dry – as you can see in the picture above.
– make sure you don’t have too much glue because you don’t want it to leak out, otherwise your pins will get stuck to the cork they’re drying on – I learned this from experience 🙂
– when buying the wooden balls and pins, make sure the pins are the right size for the hole in the wooden ball.