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!

you + me...things for valentine's day

Here's a quick sampling of a few things in my shop and Kinsey's that would be perfect gifts for Valentine's Day (if you're into giving gifts on that day and everything).

#1: Jellys in Love Embroidered Wall Art Hoop

They're holding tentacles and seem to like each other quite a bit!

#2- My Wife is the Best Giclee Print

What more can you say?

#3- We Are Better Together Giclee Print

Great colors and very fun.

early christmas softie sale

In the spirit of the crazy Black Friday/Cyber Monday/ beginning of Christmas shopping craze.....

Plush Sale!  Now through Friday, December 9th:  All owl and elephant plush are on sale!  Owls are $17.50 and elephants are $21.50!  

New owls and elephants to be listing throughout this sale.

The owl above, Owen, is one of my newest owls I made.  I've had this fabric for about a year, but never knew what to use it for.  It's pretty busy as a whole, but broken into smaller sections, it's really quite eye catching and playful.  

This owl, Denise, is from the other batch of Denyse Schmidt fabric I got from Jo-Ann. Here's the other fabric.

And don't forgot about the elephants!  This take longer for me to make, so I can't make as many as the owls.  But I love their movable arms and trunks!

Happy Thanksgiving!