We may be a bit biased around here but spring is our favorite color season. Who doesn’t love a good lilac, an understated pink or a dusty blue? Join us all March long while we celebrate spring with tutorials, inspiration, kits, crafts and color displays all influenced by our love of spring! Here are a few of our favorite floral shades to get you in the spirit.
A few months ago I was asked to make a felt bridal set, my would be client a family friend, was hoping for a felt hydrangea bouquet with pearl accents. As much as I relished the challenge I had to decline, my plate was already WAY too full. I promised to toy around with felt (like I need an excuse for that) and put together some bouquet instructions in case she decided to go DIY and it only made sense to share it with you all…in November?! Ok well better late than never, so Lisa here is the hydrangea bouquet you asked me for so many months ago and I hope you love it.
For the bridal bouquet you will need:
1 pkg of pearl beads – Mine contained 700+ and was around $4. Quality is not a huge consideration since they will just be accents.
You could also use any bead, button, sequins, or even tiny jingle bells.
1 pkg thin flexible wire – 1 pkg should more than suffice unless you’re making more than one bouquet or a larger version. Jewelry or floral wire is fine but you want to be able to cut through it easily. Cut wire into 8″ lengths.
1/2 yard or 6 – 9″ x 12″ sheets main felt bouquet color – I used Forget Me Not)
Because we need the felt to wrinkle and hold shape acrylic felt will not work.
1/8 yard or 2 – 9″ x 12″ sheets accent felt bouquet color – (I used Ice)
Duct tape
Hot glue gun and amo – aka hot glue sticks
1 and a half yards satin ribbon for bridal bouquet wrap.
Nail File
White Acrylic Paint – Optional
Step 1:
Cut all felt colors into 2 inch squares, this can be done in 5-10 minutes using a guillotine chopper. You don’t need a felt flower template for this a little bigger or smaller won’t make any real difference.
Step 2:
Cut each square down the corners toward the center then cut off the corners of each square.
Step 3:
Thread wire through 1 flower cutout near center leaving room for bead to lay in the center.
Thread pearl onto wire and come out the other side of your flower.
It’s easiest if you do this like stitching with a needle rather than bending the wire back into the flower.
Poke wire through flower. Back view of beaded flower. Front view of beaded flower.
Twist wire under flower head to hold in place.
Gently go over the sharp ends with a nail file. Just once will be enough to dull the wire and prevent painful poking.
You can skip this step if you wear garden gloves until the entire piece is wrapped.
Place completed flowers into 3 or 4 bunches.
Tape the base to make handling easier. This will be covered up so don’t worry about how it looks just keep the sharp bottoms contained and the flowers together.
Step 4:
Wet hydrangea flower bunches squeeze out. Roll bunches in towel and allow to dry.
Wet hydrangea flower bunches by dunking them into water and squeezing out extra moisture.
Roll bunches inside a towel and allow to dry overnight this will make them wrinkle and look more like real flowers.
Step 5:
Once the bunches have dried place them together and tape into place.
Step 6:
Glue one end of ribbon to top of taped area of bouquet.
Wrap ribbon around gluing it down every inch or so.
Glue pearl beads down the front if desired.
Step 7:
Fluff out flowers and shape.
OPTIONAL: Paint the areas around center of a few flowers with white acrylic paint to make the flowers look more realistic.
By far my very favorite flower has to be the gerbera daisy, it makes no excuses for itself, there is nothing subtle or demure about them even their colors are extreme and demand attention and as Auntie Mame so famously put it, “more is more!”
Enjoy the best of summer with this free gerbera daisy template and tutorial. And now you can share pictures of your creations on our Facebook page!
You will need:
Felt in your choice of flower color I used our new color, Hot Pink
Scraps of felt in a deep yellow, Gold Nugget is used here, and a pale green, I used Granny Smith.
Thread in pale green color
Flip Flops, or anything you want to accent with these whimsical flowers.
Print out and enlarge this Template to the standard copy paper size.
1: Cut 2 each of templates A, B & C in your flower color choice.
2. Cut 1 of template D in deep yellow color
3. Cut 1 of template E in pale green color.
**For tips on cutting complex or small pattern pieces from felt see our blog post***
Now that the pieces are all cut stack them in order of size making sure that the petals fan out in different directions so that the finished piece looks fuller.
Step 3:
Place a small X with a running stitch through the flower, shown here in contrasting thread color for clarity. Pull threads tightly so the flower curves inward.
Step 4: You can now attach these to any project you like, to attach them to the flip flops as shown above simply attach the flowers to the toe posts as you would a button or use hot glue.
