Flower Wall Art

 I've seen these felt flowers all over the place.  I'm trying to find different things to fill frames above my little girls' bed and this was perfect.

I usually buy the individual sheets of felt, but didn't really know how much I would need for this project, so I went to Hobby Lobby and bought it by the yard.  Soooo much cheaper!  I bought 1/3 of a yard for about $1.25 with my coupon (which I figured was about 8 of those smaller individual pieces).

I didn't look at any tutorials (which I can figure out why I didn't think to), but just cut some triangles in different sizes.

I started out by sewing mine all in one long string to make them gather. 

 

 

I laid that string of petals down in a circle and just worked my way inwards with layers of petals.

I used hot glue to put it on my fabric covered cardboard, realizing it probably would have been easy to skip the sewing part.  Guess that's when the reading the tutorials beforehand would have been pretty helpful.

I did find some great tutorials after the fact.

This one has a little different shape to it.

I can't wait to make some pillows with the rest of my felt too.

Now to fill those other 5 frames...

Accidental Experiment

My 3 girls got roses for Valentine's Day.  I was looking at them yesterday and was shocked at how sad 2 of them look, since we got them at the same time from the same place and they started out looking the same.

I had taken one to my 1st grader at school and had fixed it all up in a vase for her.  The other 2 I gave to the girls in their plastic outer wrap and then just stuck them in a big vase afterwards.

What I finally realized was that I had cut the end of the stem on the one I sent to the school, and had forgotten to with the others...therefore, my accidental experiment came about.

This may not be a huge realization to most, but I hadn't ever seen the difference for myself.  And if you haven't either, here it is. 

The one on the left had its stem clipped and the other 2 didn't.

So if you get roses, don't forget to snip the bottom of the stem about an inch up at an angle.  It really does make a difference.

Pretty Pedals w/o Sewing

My crafty friend I mentioned earlier started obsessing about making all of these different flowers we've been seeing in blogland. I'm so glad she did! I've been wanting to make some, but didn't know if they would really turn out cute.

They ARE so cute though!
I'm putting a note on how to make them under each picture.

She made these...Take a thin piece of material and twist it. Start curling the twisted material around itself and hot glue it as you go. Add a little jewel in the middle and attach all three flowers to a piece of felt and then to a clip of choice.

Use a strip of material folded in half longwise and hotglued on the open edge. Start in the center of the flower and fold over the material until it looks like this. :)

and I copied ones she had already made and did these...
Use a strip of material (about 10-12"). Fold lengthwise and hot glue open end. Start rolling from the middle. Gather and scrunch around and around...hot glue as you go. Make 3 flowers and attach to a felt circle.

Cut different sizes of circles and burn edges. Hot glue the layers together in the center of each circle. Add a jewel and clip on the back.

I love how feminine they are. I put them all on alligator clips so I can attach them to headbands or crocheted hats or whatever else I want to put them on.

She also made some flowers out of zippers...I'll have to get a picture. Then I'm going to make some!