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Valentine's Day Craft: Felt Flowers
Published 01.28.2009 | Permanent Link | Comments (4)
Upcycled Flowers
By Ellen Baker
I don't know about you, but the Valentine's Day aisle at all the stores makes me gag just a bit. Nothing says "I love you" like a stuffed gorilla made in China. Or a plastic heart filled with food coloring and chemicals. Delicious! Perhaps I'm a bit cynical about a holiday perpetuated by greeting card companies who sell over a billion cards each year. Yes, perhaps. But it's going to be a recycled Valentine's Day around our house. So make a nice dinner for your sweetie, give the kids a handmade card, and get crafty. Instead of giving Hallmark a big wet kiss this year, make something from the heart.
Here's a project for some flowers made with recycled materials that can be found around your house. I think these would be very sweet for teachers or grandparents. This project might work best for older kids, but I tried it with my young children and they enjoyed making a mess with paint and glue. Who doesn't? This project uses felted wool, which can be made by washing and drying 100% wool sweaters. I thought that the cut wire hangers might be too sharp for the kids, but they really weren't. But you could always wrap a piece of clear tape around each end.
Supplies:
-Felted sweater scraps
-Wire coat hangers
-Cereal or cracker box
-Green acrylic paint and brushes
-School glue
-Scissors
-Wire cutters
-Pliers
1. Cut cardboard from cereal box into leaf shapes and have kids paint the leaves with acrylic paint.
2. Cut felted sweater into circles (about 3"-4") and smaller center shapes (about 2"-3"). Older kids can do this on their own, but felt is difficult for the smaller hands to cut.
3. With wire cutters, clip coat hangers for stems (around 8"). Just use the straight sides and bottom.
4. With pliers, bend down the tops of the hangers.
5. Fold larger circles into quarters and clip a tiny hole with scissors.
6. Poke smaller felt piece with the hanger to form a tiny hole. Have kids slide smaller felt piece onto the hanger stem. Then slide larger piece in place. Pull the smaller piece just slightly through the bottom, as pictured.
7. Glue flower pieces to one another.
8. With the end of the metal hanger, twist a small hole into one of the leaves and slide it onto the hanger underneath the flower. You will want this to be a tight fit as this will hold the flower in place. Repeat with another leaf and glue in place.
9. Cut edges to make scallops or create desired shape. Bend the leaves to make them more realistic.
All done! Now go give someone a flower that will never need water.
You may also like to read this:
* Valentine Craft: Tic-Tac-Toe Hearts
* Free Printable Valentine Cards
* Valentine's Day Crafts for Kids
* Kids' Valentine's Day Crafts and Ideas
* Best Valentine's Gifts For Your Kids
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About this column
This is a year-round Holiday column. Kids love Holidays. As parents we have come to appreciate how Holidays seem to help structure our lives. Plus, any excuse to have fun sounds good to us!
We'll admit it, now that we're parents, we secretly look for Holidays to celebrate and between National, Secular, Unofficial and Bizarre Holidays, we think there are enough days out there to keep us inspired every week.
This column will be a place where you can get inspiration for how to enjoy time with your kids. Crafting projects and ideas will be posted on Thursdays by our brilliant contributors (see below). Other fun ideas will be posted here throughout the week as the inspiration hits us!
About our Craft Contributors
Ellen Luckett Baker is the author of the long thread, a blog about handmade goods. She has always enjoyed making things, but the flexibility of staying at home with her two daughters along with the creative inspiration they provide has led her to craft on a daily basis. Combining her love of graphic design and sewing, she has created an Etsy shop selling machine embroidery designs and sewing patterns.
Ellen lives in Atlanta with her husband and two young daughters. She holds a B.A. in Art History and a Master's of Public Administration with a focus in Non-Profit Management.
Cindy Hopper was fortunate to be raised in a family who appreciated the arts. This background led to a Bachelor's Degree in Art Education. With a keen eye for design and color, Cindy has continued her love of art and is now passing her creative skills on to her three children. Cindy's family and friends are the beneficiaries of her passion for fun and meaningful creative projects. Cindy's personal blog, Skip to My Lou, has taken her love of a project to new levels. Postings keep the family busy -– from testing new recipes for holiday treats to designing and building floats for a neighborhood parade to making fabric rolls to hold crayons to creating themed parties. Cindy seems to have an unending supply of ideas for gifts, parties and rainy days.
Marie LeBaron is a 30 something stay at home mom in Utah. Before life as a mother, she graduated with a teaching degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education, after which she taught four years of Kindergarten. After her first child was born, she decided to read books and sing silly songs at home. She misses the classroom, but she now gets to bring the fun and learning into her home and ours. You’ll see her kids a lot in these projects as they are her guinea pigs and for whom she's creative. You can follow more of her projects at her personal blog Make and Takes.
Brenda Ponnay is a stealthy secret agent who juggles parenthood to her adorable daughter by day and freelance graphic design by night. Whether it's painting, baking, drawing, making castles out of card board boxes or just doing the laundry with flair, Brenda Ponnay has finally discovered (at the ripe old age of thirty-six) that what really makes her happy is being creative every single day.
Brenda lives in Southern California with her husband, daughter, three cats and thirty-seven pet birds. You can read about all her crazy adventures on her personal blog: Secret Agent Josephine.
Disclaimer
This column is only for entertainment purposes. Any recommendations or information provided herein should not be used as a substitute for advice by a trained professional. For a full statement of our site policies, please click here.
Comments (4):
SAJ said:
I love your numbered photos for instruction! I think I'm going to have to copy you on my next post. :) Beautiful photos!
Posted on January 29, 2009 09:34
caryn said:
Love these!! and the instructions--Thanks!
Posted on January 29, 2009 13:37
Debra said:
Love this idea! I think I'll use it for my daughter's valentine's day party. Thanks!
Posted on February 1, 2009 18:27
ginger said:
Wonderful ideas & tutorial for valentines day.Thank you much for the work you put into this, to teach us.
Posted on February 6, 2009 12:15