Pretty Felt Flower Clips!

Please excuse the not-so-great quality of the photos in this post. My DSLR is having issues so I had to resort to my point-and-shoot. I did the best I could, really I did!

I have REALLY got to start taking notes when I start surfing the blogosphere because I'm always finding new ideas to try, and when I find one I usually write it down on my "Crafts To Do" list, but I always forget to note where I found it! So, if you think this might be your craft that I copied and you see this post, PLEASE feel free to let me know!!

So anyway, I saw a tutorial on how to make these super cute felt flowers, and I couldn't wait to give it a try, especially because I have two little girls who happen to love wearing flowers in their hair (and their mom doesn't think it's so shabby either)!

Since I have no idea where I first saw this idea (seriously, if it's yours, TELL ME!) I went ahead and made my own tutorial for you. You will need:

- Felt ($0.25/sheet in the craft section at Wal-Mart)

- Undecorated hair clips ($5.00/box of 100 at Sally Beauty Supply store)

- Buttons, jewels, pearls, other doodads to decorate the center of your flower ($2 for 40 pearls at Michaels- remember from the bridal shower invitations? $3 for 120 acrylic rhinestone jewels at Wal-Mart)

- Hot glue gun & glue

I started out by deciding how big I wanted my finished flower to be. I went with a 2 1/2" diameter and freehand sketched a little flower on some felt with a pen. Then, I cut it out and used it as a template to draw 4 more flowers, being careful to cut inside the pen line so that I wouldn't have flowers with inked edges.

Next, I used my glue gun (why I felt this shot was necessary I do not know) to put some piping hot glue in the center of what will be my first petal.

See the glue? Yep, there it is. Right in the middle.

Then, after I had already burned my fingers about a dozen times doing the other 3 flowers, I finally got smart and used one of the hair clips to pinch the flower in half, holding it for a few seconds while the glue sets. What do they say? "Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes; true wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes"-? Something like that. Anyway, you're welcome.

Now I have placed a dab of glue in the bottom center of my folded flower and...

...I am once again saving my fingers from a printless existence by using the hair clip to fold the flower into fourths.

Repeat the same process with 4 of your 5 flowers- the 5th will stay unfolded as your base. Here you can see how I'm fitting the flowers on top like the world's simplest puzzle. Add glue to the base to secure your petals and you have...

A petal-y flower. But wait, it gets better...

A button! I added a button. But you can add whatever you like- the pearls, rhinestones, beads- anything your little heart desires.

Once my clip was done being my surrogate fingers, I prepped it to hold the flower. I just used a scrap of my felt and cut it into a pleasing shape (a football? a pair of lips? who knows?), then simply clipped it into the clip.

Then I added the oh-so-helpful hot glue.

And attached my flower! Now it's neat as a pin. Well, neat as a hair clip. Are hair clips neat? Mine is!

See, Little Boo definitely thinks so (don't worry, she's not putting anything dangerous into her mouth).

And I had barely finished with my rhinestone-studded flowers before another little princess practically grabbed them from my hands to put in her hair!

And I admit it- this one was just for me. :-)

I'm thinking, Wow, the grass in the backyard really needs cutting. I don't care. I have a pretty flower in my hair.

But hair isn't the only thing these little cuties are good for...

Look at how they dress up the ends of my Happy Easter banner!! (FYI, Starlet snatched her flower back down from the banner the second I finished taking these photos. She's slightly flower obsessed. I wonder where she gets that from? Hmm...)

Later, I took a photo of me wearing this flower yet another way- check the post below to see (I couldn't seem to add it in after I'd finished this post).

Total calculated cost for 1 flower clip: $0.14 (that's if you use the pearls). Cheap, easy, and beautiful. My kind of project!!

A few ideas:

- You could add a little green felt leaf

- You could make your petals pointy

- You could clip 1 or more flowers to a headband or scarf

- You could make these to match an easter dress (mine matches my easter dress!)

I think I'll go make a few dozen more. :-)

This week I'm linking up to: