How to...

I thought i would show the process i go through to make one of these felt flowers. to be honest, as you could prob tell, i've been laying off the "craft" for a while.

So what you'll need to do is thread two lengths of wire doubled over, through 2 buttons, as shown. I've managed to track down some cool coloured wire, but any sort will do, not too heavy though.



then you'll need to cut out the first circle of felt which will be your inner circle. its a good idea to put a hole in the felt, thread it through and then cut out your shape first before gluing with the hot glue gun. a random circle works the best.



so with your circle glued on, you'll need to do the same thing, but this time the circle will be larger. cut it out positioned on your wire, but again do not glue it. once you have the shape you want, you can add some stripes, shapes etc.




then glue on the second circle with the stripes, and also a leaf, one or 2, the same way with the hot glue gun.



then you want to bend 1 or 2 pieces of your wire out to the side, i usually thread them with beads and turn over the end so it sticks back into the beads, to form a little loop. you could also bend the wire into a curl too.



so that's basically it, you can tape the rest of the wire for an arrangement, cut them all off for a magnet or badge. i twist the ends (and trim off the excess) on the end of some kanzashi sticks (which i get from an importer.)



big fan of the kanzashi style. i have 7 different ones i wear ;)
jxx

Paper and Stuff

7cm²

so, most people know, i like cool bits of paper, and printed tracing paper, and bits a pieces, beads and cool ribbons, eyelets, etc.

with each purchase from my etsy shop, i'm going to be including a gift tag to go with the flowers.

have been experimenting making my own envelopes out of different types of paper, and they just have a blank folded card, or a just a blank square of cardboard inside to write a message on.

might include a sticker to seal the card with, as i'm leaning towards a particular style of card/envelope. then its up to the customer whether they want to use the gift tag or not, i just like making them. :)

j

so cute!

6cm²
box

This is one of the items in my Etsy shop, which now has 10 items. Click at the side >>>

I think this is really cute, its small, the flowers would be like 2½ - 3 cms wide.

Nice find with the animal print felt, there's Leopard, Tiger and Zebra. Shame they didn't have Giraffe.

Trying to get some orange felt as i'm out of my good stuff.... they only seem to have these hideous fluro colours, which you need your sunglasses for - believe me its certainly something!

j

Etsy Shop is Open

Just quickly to let you know that the Etsy shop is open! You can click the link at the side, or just here.

have been umming and ahhing about the prices - as i found out earlier in the week - the postage is a killer! not so much the weight, but the size of the box.

still haven't added the flowers i intend to have as broaches/magnets, b/c i haven't actually bought them to attach. just quickly - napkin rings could also be the go.... although would people want 6 of the same, or 6 different ones? matching or not matching... hmmm.

also, will be doing a black and white bouquet next up, so keep your browers browsed... (!)
http://thickblackoutline.etsy.com

j

Kawaii Kanzashi!!

12½cms long
hairpin itself

Kanzashi is quite simply a Geisha Hairpin. i have some proper ones where you can attach whatever you like (beads on small chains, etc)

i have a few myself that i wear sometimes, but usually its along with chopsticks, and paintbrushes (!)
- - whatever keeps the locks up!



4½cms
flower itself (R)

so as you can see compared to a regular wbFlower, its much smaller and cuter of course!

once i had said about the kanzashi in my earlier post, i was right onto it.



and... here we have it being modelled! all the ends of the wire have been turned over (as on every flower) so there are no sharp ends or bits to get your hair caught in.


j

wbFlowers aka "Baronesque de la Fleur"

Felt
approx 9-10cms at widest point, varies

without giving too much away, so far i've made 24 of these flowers. I will be opening an Etsy.com shop soon and will be making them available as broaches and fridge magnets. and prehaps for fellow Rapunzles out there, some Kanzashi!!

there will be bunches of flowers available, but maybe only one or two at a time - gotta see how it goes first, but i must say, the bunches look excellent!

stay tuned... or is it browsed?
;)
j

upon further elaboration...

approx 9/9½ cms wide

these two are badges now. have just sewn a gold safety pin on the back, i had some of the proper things, but they were too small.

unfortunately, this photo doesn't do those green glass beads justice!

ready to make some more, but out of all the crafty treasures from many years of hording (!) buttons seems to be quite scarce!! :0
j