flower craft Archives - Simple Crafts

It’s been a bit quiet here lately; I took some time out to enjoy my little boy, since he’s growing up all too fast and needed lots of mummy attention but I also found myself (as I’m wont to do) setting up a new shop for all the beautiful craft supplies that I like using on this blog. And that took some time too.

However, the crafting hasn’t entirely stopped and I’ve got plenty of projects put aside to blog about or ones I’m about to make. My trusty army of helpers have all departed for school now, after years of home education and being on hand to craft, so I might have to do more of the leg work myself. I’m pretty sure Maddy will still be on hand to help though.

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Here is a pretty bunch of flowers we all constructed together one morning, combining pom poms and felt flower petals, sat on top of long wooden kebab sticks.

I started off with some simple 6 petal flower shapes with a hole cut in the middle that came from some craft kit or other, long ago butchered and popped into the cupboard as remnants. Popping a pom pom through the middle of this was easy and the stick sits securely into the centre of it too, so no glue really required. Put the pointy end downwards into your vase if you are worried about safely though, or cut it off beforehand.

After that Maddy and I got creative; she hand stitched some clover leaves in green felt and I had a go at machining onto felt too just to try and get my hand in with my new machine. Layers of different shapes put together make for charming (if not terribly real!) flowers and leaves decorated with ric rac can be glued to the back or skewered with the sticks.

We will be back later with a flower shape printable, but for now, one craft for the blog as a signal that we are back!

Summer is nearly over and all those crafts are nearly ready to be put to bed for another year…. flowers, butterflies, rainbows and blossoming trees will soon give way to harvest, russet leaves, Halloween and fireworks. Even the glimmer of snow and Christmas doesn’t seem so very far away. I’ve got a few more pretties that we made this year still up my sleeve though and wanted to show the picture our summer header came from. It’s part of a set I’m making for the wall of our new baby boy when he moves into his own room, the first being the tree picture this site started with.

I’ve got a real soft spot for this sort of folky and simple hand stitched picture, particularly as it copes so well with a cheaty bit of gluing to keep it quick and easy. Blanket stitch (ooh, some interesting varieties there!) and back stitch or simple long stitches add detail to felt without having to be too slavishly careful and felt is very forgiving when being cut and shaped (along with being cheap!) so a few mistakes won’t matter.

Without being too prescriptive, since creativity is key rather than following a slavish pattern, cut out some daisy petal shapes and a circle, which I added long stitch detail to to give it some interest. Add some wiggly leaves or grass stems and glue them all into place. The butterfly is blanket stitched (from a template I will be providing here shortly) and the bottom is cut from a dark piece of felt the same size as the blue background and given a wiggly edge and some back stitched detail for interest. I love buttons, so sticking those on as flowers and butterfly pattern worked really well. If you are doing this with a child, it is a great opportunity to explore symmetry too. Once it is all glue together, it will look great inside a picture frame and popped up on a wall.

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Pom Pom Flowers

Hand Sewn Butterfly & Flower Felt Picture