Festive Fabric Flower

If you can't tell by now...We LoOove Fabric Flowers! Today, I am going to show how to make this fun and festive flower headband! Make it for yourself to wear or make it as a last minute Christmas gift!

I am using this gorgeous silver and red sequined fabric, but any fabric will do. I wanted to use both colors of fabric so I cut a 1 1/2 x 22 inch strip of both fabrics, placed the pretty sides together and sew a 1/2 inch from the edge down the entire length of fabric. The length of fabric you will need will vary depending on what size flower you want, but my strip of fabric measured 2 x 22 inches after I sew the two colors together.

To make this headband you will also need:

* A Hot Glue Gun

* Elastic

* Pipe Cleaners

* Felt

For my flower I twisted the ends of two pipe cleaners together to form a longer pipe cleaner. Begin by hot glueing your fabric strip to the end of the pipe cleaner. Start wrapping your fabric around the pipe cleaner and hot glue in place after a few twists.

Your fabric doesn't have to be wrapped perfectly. In fact, I think the messier the better : ) Keep wrapping and glueing your fabric until you run out of fabric. Cut off the excess pipe cleaner if you have any.

Start at one end and begin twisting the fabric into a spiral. Glue in place ever so often to keep things from untwisting.

After twisting the entire length secure in place with hot glue.

Next I made an elastic headband for the flower.

Cut a piece of felt out that is slightly smaller than your flower.

Stretch your elastic around your head to measure out the fit you want. Cut your elastic to size and place the middle of the elastic in the middle of your felt. Secure the elastic to the felt with a line of stitches. I am using a bright color of thread so you can see where my stitches are place but you should probably use matching thread : )

Now overlap the ends of your elastic and stitch together.

Before gluing the flower to the felt I glued down some ostrich feathers.

All that's left to do is to hot glue your flower onto your felt!

Here is what the back of the headband looks like...

And here is what it looks like on my head! :D

If you decide to make this flower or any other fabric flower we have previously shown you how to make (here), we would LOVE to see it! Send us a pic and we'll put it on the blog!

Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend!

*Jes*

Quilled Snowflakes!

To wrap up this Christmas Crafty Creation marathon, I thought I would revisit an older Crafty Creation which you can find HERE. One of my favorite past times is quilling :D In the previous post about quilling, I introduced you to the craft and gave you a basic overview of how to do it. Today, I am going to show you step-by-step instructions on how to quill this BEAUTIFUL snowflake!!!

WAIT!!!! COME BACK!!!! It's not that hard..... I promise : )

I made a color coded pattern of the snowflake so that you could see the individual shapes. You can reference back to this picture if you are having trouble!

First, you need to cut your paper strips to size. I am using 1/8 inch quilling paper. Here are the lengths you need :

6 - 11 inch long strips

6 - 2 inch long strips

6 - 6 inch long strips

18 - 5 inch long strips

Other supplies that you need are tweezers, pins, clear tacky glue, a quilling tool, and a quilling board (optional).

First, grab an 11 inch strip of paper and insert one end into the quilling tool.

Tightly twirl the paper onto the tool.

Take the twirled up paper off of the tool and place it into the 1/2 inch circle on the quilling board. Let the paper expand and fill up the circle. If you do not have a quilling board, let the paper expand in between two fingers until it is about 1/2 inch wide.

Put some tacky glue on the end of the paper and close the circle. I use a pin to apply the tacky glue. Let the glue dry for a few seconds--then, pinch both side of the circle simultaneously to form an 'eye' shape.

Make six of these shapes.

Now grab your 6 inch long strips of paper. Fold each piece in half.

With your quilling tool start at one end and tightly twirl the paper inwards 2/3 of the way down one side. Slide the paper off of your tool and it should look something like this:

Now do the other side and you should end up with an 'open heart' shape. Make six of these shapes.

Put some tacky glue on the tip of an 'eye' shape and place it inside the 'heart' shape. Also glue the twirls of the 'heart' shape to the top sides of the 'eye' shape. The back of quilling boards are usually covered in foam. You can pin your shapes in place why your glue dries. If you do not have a quilling board, get a piece of cardboard or styrofoam and put wax paper on top of it ( so the glue doesn't stick to it) and pin your shapes on place. Glue all six of your 'eye' shapes inside of all 6 of your 'heart' shapes.

Now get your 2 inch strips of paper. Apply glue to 1/2 of one side. Fold the strip in half and let dry on a flat surface.

Now, for your 18 - 5 inch long strips of paper. Twirl a piece tightly onto your tool and DO NOT LET IT UNWIND! Glue the end down, and let the glue dry for a second before removing the tight circle from the tool. Do this with all 18 strips.

Once you have all of your shapes made it's time to form the snowflake!

Glue your 6 heart/eye shape combos together like this :

Glue your 1 inch folded strips of paper between your heart shapes.

Glue 1 tight circle on the tip of each 1 inch strip.

Glue 2 more tight circles below the tip.

(Pin down your shapes to keep them in place while the glue sets if you are having problems keeping things in place. )

Isn't it beautiful! The snowflakes are stronger than they appear to be, but if you want to add some extra strength and protection you can pray some clear / non-yellowing acrylic spray paint on it. Spray a VERY light, thin coat and let dry.

These make beautiful Christmas tree ornaments! You can also attach these to the front of Christmas cards, scrapbook with them, frame them, or hang them from your ceiling!

If you have any questions about the directions feel free to leave your question in the comment section and I'll get back to you as soon as possible!

I hope that you challenge yourself and explore this craft more! Let me know if you want instructions on how to make the 2 other snowflakes and I'll post them!

*Jes*

Christmas Dish Towels

This week, I have shown you many different ways to decorate your home for the Holidays. Today, I am going to show you any easy way to add some Christmas flare to your kitchen! Around the holidays, themed hand towels are very popular, but their aren't many options to choose from in the stores, and often I do not like the designs. Making your own decorative hand towels is very easy! This would also make a great gift for a friend this Christmas!

Here's what you'll need :

* A plain hand towel. (I am using a bamboo tea towel, but you can use any type you want.)

* Fabric that goes with whatever look or theme you choose

* Pins

* Sewing Machine

* Iron

* Matching Thread

All I am doing is adding a stripe of fabric across the hand towel, so the first thing you want to do is decide how wide you want your stripe. I wanted my stripe to be 3 inches wide.

Next, measure the width of your towel. Add 1 inch to both of those measurements.

If I want my stripe of fabric to be 3 inches tall and my towel is 18 inches across, I am going to cut my fabric to 4 x 19 inches.

Once you have your fabric cut, you need to iron down a 1/2 inch on each side. One easy way to do this is with no-melt mylar. You can find a sheet of No-Melt Mylar in the quilting section of craft stores. It is basically a sheet of plastic that doesn't melt.

With a ruler and x-acto knife, cut off a strip of the mylar. Make sure that you cut the edge straight.

Place the 'pretty' side of the fabric down and draw a line 1/2 inch from each edge on the back.

Place the edge of the strip of mylar on the line that you drew.

With your iron, fold the fabric over the edge of your mylar strip and iron down.

Iron down both sides of your fabric.

This is just one way to iron down seams. Do what you know and what your comfortable with : )

Now iron down a 1/2 inch seam on both ends of your strip of fabric.

Now your strip of fabric should be the exact length of your towel. Place the strip where you want and pin it to your towel.

Sew all the way around along the edge of the fabric and your finished!

I like having kitchen Christmas decor without it being overly generic!

Tomorrow, we will end our week long marathon of Christmas Crafty Creations with instructions on how to quill one of these beautiful snowflakes so make sure to check in!

*Jes*