Flower Power Felt Flowers

Project created by Jennifer Ackerman-Haywood
Nothing beats the natural beauty of a vase of fresh cut flowers, but these low maintenance felt flowers make for great stand-ins when you’re looking to make an arrangement that will stay perky for years.Ingredients:

• Five 3-inch squares of craft felt for petals

• One 3 -inch square of craft felt in a contrasting color for flower center

• Plastic bottle cap

• Green craft felt (one piece from the craft store will do)

• Two pieces of green pipe cleaner (a.k.a. chenille stems)

• Painted green dowel (or green, wooden floral stem supports)

• Handful of stuffing

• Awl (for poking a hole in the center of the bottle cap)

• Needle and thread to match felt

• Hot glue gun

• Canning jar with ring lid

• Floral foam

• Assortment of plastic buttons (Skip to step 9 to estimate how many you will need. The amount required will depend on the size of the canning jar you use.)

Steps:

1. Poke a hole in the center of your bottle cap with the awl. Next make a cozy for the bottle cap by placing it on a piece of green felt and tracing around the bottom of the cap. Cut out the circle and set aside. Cut a narrow strip of felt out to cover the edge of the cap. The ends of this strip should overlap slightly.
2. With green thread, whip stitch the narrow strip of green felt in place around the cap. Hold the green circle over the top of the cap and whip stitch around the edge of the circle connecting the strip to the bottom circle. Set aside. (Figure 1)
3. Pick up the 3-inch square of felt that will form the center of the flower and round off the corners. Then stitch a loose basting stitch around the edge. Place stuffing in the center or this piece of felt and pull thread tight to form a small ball shape. Add more stuffing as needed. Stitch closed with a knot. (Figures 2-4)
4. Snip a hole in the center of the green circle and feed a piece of pipe cleaner through the opening in the bottle cap, bending a short piece inside the cap to hold the stem in place.
5. Stitch the flower center, gathered sided down to the felt-covered bottle cap using tiny whip stitches and set aside. (Figure 5)
6. To create the flower petals, fold the five 3-inch square pieces of felt into triangles and hand stitch along the open edge using a basting stitch and one continuous piece of thread, gathering the petals as you go. After gathering the fifth petal, pull tight and knot to hold petals in place. (Figures 6 & 7)
7. Pick up your flower center with the connected stem and stitch the five petals to the stuffed center along the top edge of the green base. (Figure 8)
8. Pick up a painted green dowel and wind the pipe cleaner around the top of the dowel until it is secure. (Figure 9) Repeat this flower-making process a few more times to create a bouquet of flowers before proceeding to the next step.
9. Place a piece of floral foam snugly in the vase and pour buttons in between the glass and the foam. Screw on the canning ring without the jar sealer.
10. Poke the flowers into the foam, trimming some down to vary the height of your design for added interest.
11. Cut a leaf shape out of green felt and use a hot glue gun to glue a pipe cleaner down the center back of the leaf. Let dry and add to the arrangement.
12. Tie a bow around he canning ring to take the arrangement up a notch, or leave it as is. Either way, expect to impress the recipient of these crafty felt flowers.