As a frugal crafter, I often use what I have on hand to create new decor for my house. From wreaths during the holidays (yes, I will be showing you how to make them later in the year!) to picture frames that hang on my wall. If I have the necessary materials around, I make due with what I can to make what I want. Of course these specific materials may not be "just lying around" for everyone, which is why I strive to give tutorials that can easily be recreated frugally. I'm not here to influence your spending habits - lord knows I don't need to do any shopping at the moment - but I am here to influence your creative abilities. Everyone is artistic in one way or another. Believe me, I've seen it. Recently I introduced you all to Sally - my succulent who you can "meet" HERE. Well recently I started noticing how she just looked a little sad. I wanted to spruce her up with some color, but I wasn't exactly in the budget for rocks to buy. No, I felt she needed a little fit of floral love, but didn't need the dead weight of real flowers. They need much more water than Sally, hence the "dead weight" part. So as I started to swirl ideas around in my head, I decided to create my own flowers using felt. Something I had an over abundance of.
Seeing how adorable these turned out, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share the process with you all! Using these techniques, you can easily create gorgeous decor for all around your house! A floral bouquet, a rose chandelier (working on this and I will share with you all as well), a flower wreath, sunflower hair ties, or perhaps even a plain pillow with your flower creations glued - or sewn - onto them! They were also incredibly easy to make. It only took me about 15 minutes to make all 3!
Now, I'm not the greatest at explaining things, so I've made sure to include pictures for accurate representation. Hopefully you will understand, but please do feel free to contact me if you don't understand anything!
Shall we begin?
Materials needed to make these 3 flowers:
Hot Glue Gun + Glue Sticks (I use a Low Temp one)
Felt - Green(s) for the leaves and whichever colors you'd like for the flowers/centers
Scissors
Note: I used 1/2 pink felt sheet, 1/8 green felt sheet, 1 small piece of brown felt, 1/4 blue felt sheet, 1/4 of yellow felt sheet.
*before you begin, plug in your hot glue in a safe place where kids can't get to it*
This was the first flower I created. I fell in love with how absolutely beautiful it turned out. I will say that this one took the most time, but I feel it was completely worth it in the end.
You'll need a small thin strip of pink felt, a "wave" strip of of pink felt, medium sized "petal" shaped pieces, large "petal" shaped pieces, and 2 green "leaf" shaped pieces.
First begin by rolling the small rectangular strip of pink felt into what will look like a little roll. Make sure to do this some what tight, as you want it to be a little small. After you've rolled it together, glue the end piece to the center. This will hold it all in place.
Then glue one end of the wave strip to the roll you just created. Begin lightly wrapping the wave strip around the roll, gluing the end of the wave piece to the center, holding everything in place. At this point you should have a small flower. You can of course stop here, but I wanted a bigger rose.
Individually glue the medium sized petals onto the small flower you've created. Do this in a way that you're gluing each petal in between the "petals" of the small flower. If you glue the medium petals directly behind the small flower's petals, you'll end up with space in between the petals and it won't look correct. (I really hope that made sense).
Once you've finished with all the medium individual petals, start gluing the large petals in the same manner you did the medium ones, by gluing in any spare space seen. This will give the effect of a fully bloomed flower.
For the petals, you'll take your previously cut out green leaves and simply pinch one end, gluing the sides together. This will give the illusion of a more realistic leaf. To attach them to the flower, just place a small amount of glue onto the edge of the leaf, where you just pinched and glued it. (see photo).
Done! You've just completed a beautiful felt rose! What's fabulous is that you can use different colored greens for multi-toned leaves and any color flower you'd like!
For this flower, all you need is 3 small "leaf" shapes in green and a blue "wave" shape. Once you've cut out a strip of blue from your felt, simply cut out a smooth wave on one side. Then begin to roll the wave. You'll start to see the flower taking shape. Once you've obtained the look of your flower (you may need to trim certain sides and work with it a little), place a small dot of hot glue on the outer edge. This should hold your rolled flower in place.
Be sure not to roll it too tight as it will look like a fruit roll-up, but also be sure not to roll it too loose or it will just keep coming apart.
Unlike the rose flower, you aren't using a tone of material so you need to "stretch" it out. Just make sure you can't see any visible space. With this particular flower, you may need to do a little "pinching" on the bottom, securing it with glue. You can even glue a small piece of circular fabric to the bottom pinched area, giving a little bit more support to your tulip.
For the leaves, cut out a leaf shape out of green felt. Then pinch the bottom of ONE side, gluing the bottom edges together. This will give off the effect of a leaf. To glue to leaf to the flower, apply a small amount of hot glue to the edge of the green leaf (where you just pinched it together) and place onto the flower. (Same directions as the rose flower's leaves.) For a really unique look, try cutting and using different sized leafs.
This flower is slightly harder more time consuming than the blue tulip, but not nearly as time consuming as the pink rose.
You'll need about 8 medium sized individual petal pieces cut out and 5 slightly larger individual petal pieces cut out. You'll also need 1 green leaf felt piece cut out (or as many as you'd like) and 1 small strip of brown felt.
First pinch the 8 medium sized individual petal pieces, just as you would the leaves. Do NOT pinch the larger ones! You need these as they are! Simply use the same technique as previously mentioned and glue. You may need to hold each piece for about 3 seconds or until fully dry. You don't want these to separate at all.
Once you have all your pinched petals, roll your brown strip into a small tight roll. This is going to be your center. Of course, once you've rolled the strip together just glue in place like the others.
Now begin gluing your pinched petals onto the brown roll, again using the technique you would when attaching leaves to a flower. Glue the edge of each pinched petal (where you glued the sides together) and attach to the brown roll. You may need to do a practice layout before hand, to better space each petal without overlapping.
When each petal is glued onto the brown center roll securely, start to apply a very small amount of hot glue to the back edges of the pinched petals, where the petals are already touching each other. You pretty much want to make sure there is no space shown. Gluing the outer middle of each petal to one another, will give this a very nice look.
After that's done, begin carefully applying a small amount of hot glue into the center, ONLY focusing on the edge of the brown roll where the petals meet. Immediately slide each slightly larger petal piece (that has NOT been pinched) onto the top of the pinched petals, pushing the bottom out of the center. This will help cover any glue, but not cover the brown center roll. Continue doing this by overlapping the petals. Again, this will give a "no space" effect, making for a pretty flower.
Finish it off by adding you leaf just as you did the others and there you have it! A perfect sunflower and a batch of pretty flowers to add anywhere!
Of course you can use one technique to create a bunch of different colored flowers or use all the techniques to create a field of flowers! Regardless the whole of this is to help you learn how to create timeless floral pieces that can be used with any decor or design.
Perhaps you need a little color to mix up the place. These flowers can help you, all you need is a little felt and some imagination! Pinterest helps too. I've seen some gorgeous works of art using felt. You wouldn't believe half the things people create by using ONLY felt! With the amount of scraps I have around, I may just have to browse Pinterest tonight and plan out other DIY's to tackle!
Since you now have the skills and means to make these beauties, go out there and start creating magnificent works of art! Most of all, have fun!
P.S. these are great to do with the kiddo's. My son helped me and absolutely loved it. He mostly helped me by designing the flowers and handing me the pieces. I didn't want him getting close to the hot glue, as that would not have made for a very fun Tuesday evening!
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