Gettin' Crafty: Christmas Edition

Christmas is my favorite time of year, and I cannot wait to celebrate. Being the Holiday purist, I do not start decorating until Thanksgiving is over with....usually it means after the meal or the day after. I was lucky enough to score a four day weekend to celebrate my husband's birthday and also have time to get our tree and do a little Christmas crafting. I had been contemplating what to do with my Christmas wreath this year, I think fake flowers should be outlawed and I used feathers and ribbon for my fall wreath.

I found a post on Pinterest on how to make no-sew fabric flowers and was pretty interested to see how it would turn out. They are great to make out of leftover fabric and can be used for wreaths, hair pins, decoration, or sweater embellishments. I however did not have leftover fabric because I do not own a sewing machine. This was a great opportunity to work with some fabric, which I never get to do...no-sew is right up my alley! They recommended using Liquid Stitch, which I forgot to grab at JoAnn's, so I used hot glue with the same results. Use Liquid Stitch if you are making them with kids. When choosing your fabrics, look at the colors-not the pattern. You will not see the pattern when the flower is made, you can pick ones with puppy dogs on it and it will turn out to have swirls and flecks of other colors.

You will need:
Fabric
Hot Glue
Sissors
Grapevine wreath
Pearls, feathers, or other embellishments
*I purchased the already cut fabric squares from JoAnn's. They are about $1 a piece and will yield 10-12 flowers each.

Our Christmas decorations have always been turquoise and brown, this year I decided to add a little red (which is strange because I do not usually like red)

Step One: Cut fabric into 1" strips. Fold in half so the print is on the outside and seal with glue

The edges do not have to be perfect, it will give you a "less perfect" flower.

Step Two: Start with one end and roll. This will be the center of your flower

Side Note: Having a long weekend is awesome, I go to paint my fingernails! (Which is a no-no in the food biz)

Step Three: Twist the ribbon once over as you roll. This will give the flower it's petals. Play with it some! Twist one way, then the other, stop twisting and just roll, twist twice! No two flowers will be the same!

Step Four: When you reach the end of the ribbon, seal with glue. To make larger flowers, glue another ribbon strip to where you ended and keep rolling.

Here is the wreath I made, I just hot glued the flowers to the wreath and added pearls on floral wire. I also made a swag for our front door with the flowers to give it a theme. 

Lowe's gave us free branches so that I could make our swag

They are also cute as centers for bows. The curtain rod that pictures are typically hung from is turned into our stocking holder at Christmas. I will probably add some greenery to the rod if I find some on sale....