Ribbon Rose Tutorial

I love making these little ribbon roses!  They are so quick and easy and look great.  These are very similar to the roses that are so popular for headbands and pins.  You can make them with satin or grosgrain ribbon, even zippers!  This is one of the best tutorials I have found. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NriXH3qMuqk

So You Think You Can Shop

I've been on a bit of a crafty kick, thanks to some precios free time I managed to find last week in the form of two floating holidays I had to take before July 1 (or I'd lose them).  I'm sure the crafty bug will wear off soon and I will be back to posting couponing ideas, or probably more likely, not posting anything at all.  So bear with me through one or two more crafty posts (I have a rolled ribbon tutorial I have got to share!  It would be so wrong to keep it all to myself!).

On to this post though, something quick and easy to help out my friends that are in the same boat I am- living in a small town with only the craft aisles of Wal-Mart to supply me (JoAnn's will be opening in a few months though!!! WOOHOO!).  So a question I get a lot is- where do you get your supplies?  I do use WalMart quite a bit for ribbon.  If I need just plain ribbon they are reasonable and have a decent amount of colors.  Most of my korker ribbon was bought at WallyWorld.  I also buy my basics there- the glue guns, the glue sticks, buttons, yarn and the like.  But what if I need monkey ribbon to match K's Gymboree outfit?  Or what if I don't want to pay $2 for a single crocheted headband?  I do what all small town savy shoppers have learned to do- shop online.  Here are some of my favorite stores-

My go-to store for headbands, flowers, tutus and pettiskirts is www.haloheaven.com.  Their shipping is crazy high, but their prices on their supplies are great.  So I wait until they offer a free shipping sale and stock up.

For specialty ribbon I have had the best luck with eBay.  K has a bunch of cute Gymboree outfits and I love finding ribbon that matches.  I just search for Gymboree ribbon and viola.  Printed ribbon is always a bit pricey, but with a little shopping around you can usually find it for a reasonable price.  I also like to buy alligator clips and crocheted headbands in bulk off of eBay.

Etsy has become a great place for supplies, especially if you are looking for vintage or upcycled materials.  I have found some gorgeous flowers and lace on here.  If you are looking with unique embellishments this is also a good place to start your search.

So there you have it.  A few good places to look for crafting supplies, especially if you are looking for bow making stuff.

So You Think You Can't Craft

Some craft projects are just so easy, anyone can do them.  Right now flower clips are all the rage and they are so easy!  (Sure you can make them more elaborate, but if you want something quick and easy and rewarding, look no further than a flower clip.  I whipped up this pile in about 30 minutes.

All you need is silk flower heads, an embellishment for the middle if you want one, hot glue (I suggest true hot glue, not the low temp stuff), and a hair clip.  I like to use alligator clips because they hold so much better in fine hair, but you may want to use a smooth clip if you are planning on clipping onto crocheted headbands or anything that can snag easily.

I first remove the head of the flower off the stem.  I like to pull the base off too, just to see how well the flower is put together, if it looks like the petals are going to be loose, I give it a dollop of glue before I pop the base back on.  If I want a flower to lay really flat or if I am going to layer it with feathers or something I leave the base off so it is more pliable.  Next I hot glue an embellishement in the middle if I want one.  (Lately I have been buying flower heads with the embellishments already in place, they seem to hold on better in the long run).  With the alligator clips I just pop on a generous ball of hot glue and place the flower on it.  If the clip is going to be visible or if the clip is smooth, I like to line the clip with a bit of ribbon first.  And that's it!  So easy!

I've started experimenting with paper flowers too- I think they look pretty good!

So You Think You Can Be Martha Stewart

Have you ever felt the need to be crafty?  As in "I just need to make something cute and sweet and fun and I need to do it right now!"  I had one of those moments this week.  And I totally blame Martha Stewart.  I was flipping through one of my Martha Stewart Living magazines (I won a subscription a few months ago, pretty sweet prize if you don't mind being reminded constantly that no one can do it better than Martha can) and saw some sweet and delightful felt flowers.  Felt Flowers?!?!?!   I didn't know felt flowers exisited before Martha told me so.  How did I not know about these little bundles of adorableness?  They are so cute and easy to make!  So add this to the list of crafty goodness I only have time to do when I am on vacation.  Prepare to be hooked on felt!

You will need a sheet of felt in your flower color, a sheet of leaf green felt, matching embroidery floss or heavy duty thread, a needle that can handle felt, good, sharp scissors, a large and small petal template, a leaf template, marker or fabric chalk and glue (I used hot glue).

I found a basic petal template online and drew the outline of the petals on the felt in marker. (This was not the best idea, there was some bleeding from the ink and the petals had to be cut inside the line so the discoloration wouldn't show.  Next time I will use chalk or maybe a lighter marker.)  I cut out the petals.  Next I took five petals and stitched them together with a loose over under stitch.  I knotted both ends, but that probably wasn't necessary.  When I was done, it looked like this (side note- buy felt and thread at the same time, my best guess for matching was not so great, luckily the thread is hidden, but it still irritates me for some reason.

Once I had all the petals facing the same direction I cinched them together to form the flower.  Now, I am pretty sure Martha Stewart can do this with one hand.  I could barely do it with 2.  It might be helpful to have someone pull and hold the strings while you correct petals that try to twist the wrong way.  This one bloom took me a good 15 minutes of wrestling it before it looked right.  Once it was perfect, I tied the ends together in a double knot.

Next I did the the smaller petals.  Always use an odd number of petals for the best results.  For a big flower do 7 large petals, 5 medium petals and 3 small.  This set was done just like the first set only they were alot easier to tie together.  Yay!

Adorable, right?  I ended up making a few flowers this size just because they were easy and cute.

I layered the two sets of petals together to make my flower.  Martha probably sews her flowers together, I used hot glue.  Way faster.  I also hot glued an embellishment to go in the middle and a leaf on the back.  Viola!

I'm not crazy about the button, it's just not the right color.  I'll probably pull it off and switch it for something a little more flashy.  I think it turned out pretty cute though.

Here's some smaller one layer/5 petal flowers-

I think they will look adorable on a headband for a newborn!

Of course, after I took the trouble to figure this out and killed about 2 hours trying to make it all work, I decided to see what the intenet held by way of felt flower patterns and I found this-

http://mrspriss.com/2010/05/18/classic-felt-flowers-tutorial/

Felt flower tutorial for a no-sew felt flower!  Hot glue gunners of the world unite!

And after I have had my fill of doing it the easy way, I am going to attempt felt roses- these are so sweet!

http://www.purlbee.com/rose-barrettes/