Felt Flowers Tutorial

Happy Mothers Day to all of the Mommies out there. Especially my Mom & Mother in Law! Also - a Happy Birthday to my little sister!!

These flowers aren't very hard. The only thing I feel the need to really warn you about is:

You will more than likely burn yourself.

I can't avoid it each time I do this. But I think my fingers aren't very sensitive to burns from the years of accidental curling iron burns and learning my way around a glue gun. There are some more severe than others but the likelihood of burning myself each time I break out the hot glue gun is about 100%.

You can possibly avoid burns one of two ways: find some kind of gloves that won't glue themselves to your project, OR you might want to try a popsicle stick for this craft. You'll see where and why.

What you'll need (not pictured): Felt, scissors, hot glue gun, glue sticks (doesn't require a lot), *popsicle stick, or *protective gloves.

First step: Cut out a circle of felt...or something that resembles a circle. This doesn't have to be perfect, but if you feel the need you can find a circle to trace. The bigger the circle, the bigger the flower and vice versa.

Step Two: you can do this a couple of ways. I usually cut a strip of felt a couple of inches thick. Another way of doing this is cutting out more circles (smaller than the original and they'll gradually get smaller too) and then cut them in half. I like the strip way.

Step 3: If you're going with the strip, you'll begin cutting out half circles. I, personally, usually make mine look a little more like 1/4 of a four leaf clover. But really, it doesn't matter very much.

Step Four: I cut gradually smaller half circles down the length of the felt. Once I'm down at the end, I flip the strip over and start cutting even smaller ones on the other side.

Eventually you'll be left with this:

Step Five: You probably won't need ALL of the half circles you cut, but it's good to have them there for backup - or a second flower. Depending on how small you wand the flowers, this could easily make two. Now to begin the flower you'll take one of the bigger half circles you cut out. You'll put a strip of hot glue (be careful!) on the straight edge/ bottom of the half circle. Then you'll glue it to the outer rim of the felt circle.

Step Six: THIS IS WHERE YOU MAY WANT A POPSICLE STICK OR PROTECTIVE GLOVES. Or really, this is the step where you burn yourself. Ok: with either a popsicle stick, gloved finger or exposed fragile thumbs, WHILE THE GLUE IS STILL SOMEWHAT HOT, you begin pinching the sides of the half circle inward so the half circle stands up instead of laying flat.

Step Seven: Repeat. I like to glue the next half circle so it overlaps the last piece a little bit. You'll push the sides inward so half circle bows inward and stands up a little bit.

Step Eight: You'll keep repeating for the first row with half circles around the same size but remember to use pieces that gradually get smaller in size. Just keep overlapping a little and keep pinching and try not to get burned.

The likelihood of getting burned increases with the smaller pieces. I haven't tried the popsicle stick, but this is definitely where you'd want to use it. With the smaller pieces keep up the same overlapping and pinching.

Last step: (Not pictured) Once you get down to the smallest pieces, or really the last one, you'll glue the bottom and PINCH IT BEFORE YOU GLUE IT ON. So it's almost folded in half. (It's easier to see on the white flower below than the gray one.) That one you'll hold down while it dries to make sure it stays in that shape.

Once that last piece is on you can do whatever with the felt flower. I like to make these flowers for all different sorts of projects, not just accents.

You could do the following:

1. Sew/ glue on a fabric strip on the bottom so it's easy to slide onto a headband/ alligator clip/ hair clip to wear around.

2. Glue on a pin/ bracket so it's easily added to a bag/ tote.

3. Glue onto a picture frame for a cute accent.

4. Glue onto a home accent piece like seen above.

5. Sew onto a small white onesie and give as a baby gift.

These can be put anywhere really.

So that's it. Again: please be careful.

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TCB, A2Z, TM,