Thank you for all the lovely comments yesterday about my upcycled wood display frame! I read each one multiple times {dork}.
The original plan was to adhere large washers or big flat-headed roofing nails to the wood, then hold the pictures up with magnetic clips. After laying it out, I wasn’t a fan of the polka-dotted look the washers created and the nails were too small for the magnets.
The pins were a total “DUH” moment. It seems silly that I didn’t think of that first.
As usual, I had trouble finding what I wanted, so I made my own.
{a young Miss Alice}
I started off with bulldog magnet clips purchased at Staples. They were $3.99 for a 3/pack. I bought 2 packages.
Obviously the magnet thing failed miserably but I still really liked the shape & design of the clip part. Nothing a chisel couldn’t take care of.
Don’t tell my mother, but I used her backsplash to brace the magnet while I hammered the chisel under the clip.
It didn’t seem to hurt the counter and sliced right through the rivet.
Chiseling the clip off bent the top a little.
Pliers easily bent it back.
Before / After
So now you have a clip that needs a pin. Thumbtacks!
{I actually didn’t own any thumbtacks but for $1.99 purchased a pack of 200. I only needed 6 so if you need some let me know. I share.}
{And yes, I’m well aware that I own a variety of power tools and not a single thumbtack.}
Attach your clip to a plate or similar horizontal surface and grab your super glue.
Fill the INSIDE rim of your clip handle with a little ring of super glue. Set a thumbtack on top thusly.
Pull down on the spikey pin part of the thumbtack to make really sure it’s stuck down into the glue.
Shoring everything up with a few extra clips to prevent slippage and maximize adhesion never hurt anybody.
Let dry.
{I made 6 pin-clips; 5 dried fairly quickly but 1 took a good bit longer than the others. It did eventually dry ~ about 40 minutes later ~ but patience was never my strong suite.
Super easy & professional looking! This would work great with bulletin boards too.
For 6 clip-pins, here’s the cost breakdown:
2 – 3/packs bulldog magnet clips $7.98 {+tax}
1 – package silver thumbtacks $1.99 {+tax}
Total = $9.97 {+tax} with a 194 thumbtacks leftover
You could probably find the clips cheaper online without the magnets but I couldn’t find anything like that in the stores.
I really love that the pins are easy to reposition and they don’t make holes in my pictures.
brickcitylove.com 
this is awesome. I might partly steal this idea to display some photos for my open house on Sunday – I ordered some un-framed photos mounted on mat board and I was trying to figure out how I can display them .. easels? mount them on a wall? mounting on a wall would be temporary since I need my wall space for backgrounds for photos – so any kind of permanent mounting would be a waste of time and wall damage – so i have been racking my brain trying to figure out how to accomplish this… and this might work perfectly… two of these clips should hold even a 20×30 photo attached with a thumbtack. And thumtacks leave tiny holes in the wall that won’t be noticeable.
long story short, this is awesome
ooooh even cooler would be to bring in a huge metal sheet panel and magnetize the photos with magnetic clips
now to find and transport a huge metal sheet? lol…
omg i have a metal door… okay that’s enough commenting + brain farts
You got another award on my blog. Woo Hoo!
This was a great project- thanks for the tutorial!
Really cool idea. Pretty pictures, too!
For a cheaper alternative, I’m pretty sure they sell those metal clips without the magnet attached, so that you don’t have to buy the magnetic kind and then remove the magnet, and I’m pretty sure that the non magnetic clips are cheaper than 4$ for 3 clips. It seems odd that staples wouldn’t have them though.
Yeah; I thought that was weird too! I’m sure they sell them online without the magnets.
I found the non magnetic ones at my Staples, they were HUGE though but good for what I need them for – and they are on the staples website also, if i remember correctly
Pingback: HOW TO: Make an Upcycled Wood Display « brick city love