petal – A Smith of All Trades

I cleaned the heck out of my craft room last night, thank goodness. It looks so much better now, but I did manage to distract myself with a quick project. Then I got back to cleaning! Phew.

As I was putting stuff away, I found a pretty sheet of navy felt that I wanted to use to make a felt flower. So I took a break from tidying, grabbed my glue gun, some scissors and a coaster, and set out to craft.

I started my quick flower project with a small, round, cardboard coaster and many, many, many flower petals cut out of the felt.

To make the flower, I put hot glue onto the edge of the coaster, then placed a felt petal on top of the glue. I let it sit for a second or two so the glue would cool a bit, then I pinched the petal to create a crease in each one.

I did this until I got around the entire edge of the coaster.

With the edge covered in petals, I started filling in the middle with petals. I did another full circle of petals, then four to fill in the center.

I put a glob of glue in the middle of the flower, then placed an awesome, old button in the middle. Not sure exactly what I’m going to do with it, but I think this flower would be super pretty on a wreath.

I was a crafting machine this weekend! Unfortunately for the blog, I was making oodles and oodles of the same things, all of which I’ve shared with you already. My weekend was consumed with Mod Podged candles and feather pins and barrettes. I did get a chance to try something new that I think will be a big hit at my fair in November — flower barrettes! If I had a daughter, she’d be wearing these things every day. They are so flippin’ cute!

Since I was making these for the Trash to Treasure fair, I was using materials that others my otherwise think of as garbage. So, I pulled out a scrap of blue fabric about 4 inches x 6 inches and some cardboard that came in a package at work this week.

The first thing I did was cut out five petals from my fabric. I cut these petals with a pointy tip, but I think I like the rounded edges a little bit more.

Next, I sewed the petals together. To do so, I started on the bottom edge of the petal and stitched it down through the top, then back and forth three times. This puts a nice little crease in each petal.

Once you do the first, add the rest in the same manner. With all five threaded, put a stitch back through the first petal, then tie the thread in a knot.

Now it’s time to add the backing. I cut out a square of cardboard and a piece of felt and glued them to one another. Then, I glued the cardboard side to the back of the flower.