quick flower tutorial project

I recently made these lovely flowers for my sister in law's birthday.  They are super easy to do, fairly quick, and involve supplies you most likely already have.  

You will need:

*yarn of any color you want for your flowers

*scissors

*glue gun and glue sticks

*small twigs, dowel rods, or other type of "stem" for your flowers

Choose your yarn and wrap the strand around two of your fingers as shown.  You can use three fingers if you'd like - this will make the flower head bigger.  I used two fingers for all of mine.  

Continue wrapping the yarn around your fingers, but not too tightly!  You don't want to lose feeling in your fingers.  I wrapped the yarn about 50 to 75 times around.  Experiment with what outcome you like best.

After wrapping the yarn around your fingers the number of times you want, slide the whole thing off.

Cut off a piece of yarn from the skein that is somewhere between 5 to 8 inches long.  Place the piece of yarn directly under the wrapped yarn pile.  Try to center it the best you can.

Next, tie the piece of yarn tightly around the wrapped yarn pile.  I double knotted it.  

This will pull the yarn together and you will see all these little loops.  Take your scissors and cut through all the loops.

Cut, cut, cut.

You will be left with this crazy looking pom pom.  Take your scissors and keep trimming off pieces of the yarn, making it even all the way around.  You can make it as long or short as you want.  Although, you won't want to cut too much off because you might show the center piece of yarn you knotted. 

Here's a finished example.  

Now you're ready to attach the flower head to the stem.  Twigs, dowel rods, whatever you want.  I used twigs for mine because that's what I had and I liked the idea of mixing the soft yarn with the rustic sticks from nature.  

Here's the finished set.  I displayed them in a glass Ball jar with pieces of brown felt for "dirt".  I wanted the arrangement to look like it was still growing in the ground, although the flowers would look just as good without the felt base.  I just tossed scraps in the bottom and arranged the flowers.  Finally, I  found two vintage buttons and tied a piece of ribbon around the top.  

Perfect, easy, and looks great!  

Now of course, I need to make some for me!

south carolina...take two

One of our favorite places we visited while in South Carolina was Brookgreen Gardens.  This is not just a garden, but also a zoo and the site of the Oaks Plantation which was set on rice fields.  The zoo portion had all kinds of animals from bald eagles and otters to alligators and foxes.  

The garden portion has wonderful collections of flowers and huge sculptures all over the grounds.  

Here's Kinsey in the Palmetto Garden.  I'm in love with the brick wall in the background.  It's two bricks wide on each section.  This would be great in our backyard...maybe in the future?

An overview of the Palmetto Garden.  The palms are on all four sides and hundreds of poppies line the pool.  The poppies are such a great burst of color.  I'm so happy they were in full bloom when we visited!

Foxglove up close.  I'm thinking about getting some for next year's garden.  

Me and some new friends. 

Just one of the many smaller sculptures in various beds throughout the gardens.  

In the middle of Live Oak Allee.  These are centuries old Oaks with Spanish Moss hanging off the branches.  Another favorite spot!  Below the trees are beds of hundreds of daffodils.  Unfortunately, they were practically over blooming when we visited.  I can only imagine how great the yellow flowers looked against the green leaves and dark trunks.

Of course, we did visit the beach.  We went to Huntington Beach State Park and the beach within walking distance to my grandparents' house in Murrells Inlet.

Kinsey isn't doing a crazy dance in the picture below (at least not at that moment).  He's bending down to touch the water on our last morning in the Grand Strand.  

This is a huge fish/shark tank in the Charleston Aquarium.  Twice a day or so, someone dives in the tank and feeds the fish.  We weren't here when that happened, but it must be crazy to see. 

The albino gator.

Hello Mr. Turtle...(or Mrs. Turtle).  

The week and a half went way too fast!  We're hoping to go back sometime in the next year.  This was our first visit in 7 years!

I love felt and making an easy summer wreath

I recently made (or actually upgraded) a wreath for a front door.  This weaved twig wreath has been on our front door since winter.  Back in the holiday months, it sported some festive ribbon and tiny glass balls.  After Christmas, I removed the decorations and just kept the bare wreath up.  Everyday it seemed to be saying to me, "Cloth me!  Decorate me again!"

I finally listened.

 And one of the best parts is, I already had everything I needed for the project!

The supplies needed are very few.  Felt (any felt will do really, even the cheaper sheets available at craft stores are great for making these flowers, so there's no need to buy the expensive felt.), glue gun, and wreath.  That's it.  I already had the wreath and a glue gun and felt are pretty much staples in our house.  So the total cost of this project = $0.

 First step is to cut out circles of felt.  Then, cut in to the circle making a spiral shape.  At the beginning, cut a normal strip and gradually have the strip get thicker.  You'll end up with a little circle "knob" in the middle.  It should look something like this:

Starting at the narrow end of the spiral, roll the felt up.  Be sure to keep the bottom of the felt lined up straight.  

As you keep going, little "petals" will form.  It will start looking a little something like this:

 Here's where the glue gun comes in.  When you roll up all the felt and get to the center, put a dollop of glue on the felt right before the spiral gets to the center "knob".  

The last step is putting a few more dollops of glue along the flower back and then pressing the center down.  

Hello finished felt flower!

Making these flowers can be very addicting.  It's super easy to do and you can make them in all different colors and even in multiple tones.  If you're like me, you'll make more than enough for your wreath.

Next, comes placement.  I recommend laying them on the wreath before gluing to get the design and composition that you want.  

Once you're happy with the placement, hot glue the flowers on.  You can always add things like ribbon or buttons to the wreath, too.  

And the finished wreath hanging:

A lovely and incredibly easy summer wreath.  You'd be foolish not to make one yourself!

early may flower garden

Here's some spring pictures from our flower garden we took recently.  About this time every year, I always wish I could take the next four months off and do nothing but gardening (and crafting of course!).  Maybe someday.

Nice mix of colors on this tulip.

I love the shape and color of this tulip.  We have two of these in our flower bed and they always are the last tulips to bloom.

Ants crawling on the peony blooms.  As alarming as this can look, it's actually a good sign.  It means the flower is nice and healthy.

 Here's two poppy heads getting ready to bloom.  I won't lie - last year I pulled all the poppies out except one because I thought they were weeds.  I definitely learned from that mistake!  Poppies are some of my favorite flowers, so I was pretty disappointed after learning this.  Can't wait to actually see them bloom this year.

I'm not fully sure what kind of flowers these are.  Although I'm pretty sure they're a type of bluebell.

Another favorite tulip.

No idea what kind of plant this is.  I actually thought it was just a weed, but it has such pretty blooms all over and is about 20 inches tall.

Here's our very first ever blossom on our Betsy Ross lilac bush.  We got this from a friend when we moved into our house in the fall of 2009.  It was just a stick when we got it and then just had green leaves last year, and now it looks like an actually lilac bush!

 This sedum I got from the local nursery at the end of the season last year on sale.  I wasn't sure how it would transplant at the time, but it's really growing now.

And perhaps maybe, one of the most anticipated things of the spring garden...our strawberry plants!  This one is getting so close!  Hopefully we can get to it before the rabbits, or squirrels, or birds, or chipmunks, or any other critters that come into our yard!