DIY Fabric Flowers

Well, the suburban crafter's strike again: "Tackling projects one pin at a time". This month, we were inspired by fabric flower necklaces on Pinterest. The pins I was most inspired by were a braided chain flower necklace, a puff flower necklace and a rolled flower necklace. If you know anything about me, you know I couldn't choose just one!


I started out by making a few of the puff flowers and a few of the rolled flowers. Detailed instructions for making these can be found by following the trails of the Pinterest links above. No need to reinvent the wagon! I will give you a brief description of the project and the supplies needed.
To start, I gathered the following supplies:

• Cloth (I cut up old shirts that no longer fit to save money)
• Hot glue gun
• Felt (for the back of the flowers)
• Chain, clasps and small metal rings (for the necklace)
• Ribbon (if you are going to braid or weave your chain)
• Fabric scissors

Puff Flowers
To make the puff flowers, you need to cut your fabric into circles, and cut a circle of felt the same size. I found that for smaller 1" flowers I needed 10-15 fabric circles, and for larger 2" ones I needed 15-20. It depends on how scrunched you want the flower to look. Next, scrunch up each circle and adhere it to the felt backing using hot glue. Once all the circles are attached you can trim the flower with scissors to even it out. 

Fabric Circle Example

Rolled Flowers
To make the rolled flowers, you need to cut your fabric into a strip about 1" wide. The longer you cut the strip, the bigger the flower will end up. Tie a Knot at one end, and then roll and twist the fabric around the knot, hot gluing along the way. Once you reach the end of your strip, secure it using hot glue, and then glue a fabric felt circle to the back.

Felt Backing Example

When you finish making the your flower you want, attach the small metal ring and you are ready to string it onto your necklace! The nice thing about this is that you can switch out the flower depending on your outfit!

Finished Flowers

Next, I decided to make a ribbon necklace , but instead of  braiding the ribbon, I decided to weave it into the chain. This is personal preference. I tied the ribbon to one end of the chain, and began weaving it in and out of each link using a knitting needle.

Weaving Ribbon Example

Next, I attached my flowers using felt and hot glue to the chain. I wanted the flowers to be attached to this necklace instead of removable so they would sit off center when I wear it. You can decide how you want your necklace to look and customize it from there.

Permanently Attaching Flowers Using Felt

Finished Ribbon Necklace

I still have a few more flowers left to make, but we ran out of time! We did have time to take a group photo, everyone's projects turned out great!

Superbowl Football Cake

Last year for Superbowl, I made football cupcakes. This year I decided to go for a cake instead! I looked on Amazon, and decided to purchase the Wilton First and Ten Football Pan. I baked the cake (Funfetti, my husbands favorite!) as normal and then decorated it with chocolate butter cream. It was simple, but everyone liked it!

Raspberry Swirl Cupcakes

My mom and I threw my sister a bridal shower a couple of weekends ago, and one of my duties was to make dessert! Of course I decided to make cupcakes, but I wanted to try something different. I was browsing through one of my many cupcake books, and ran across and idea for raspberry swirl cupcakes.

The recipe is very simple. First, prepare cake mix as directed on the box. I used white, but you could use any flavor. Then, fill cupcake liners (I used these cute Wilton flower pleated baking cups I found at Home Goods). Then, take raspberry (or any other flavor) canned pie filling and scoop 1/2 tsp. into the center of each unbaked cupcake. Use a toothpick to swirl the pie filling around. Then, bake cupcakes as directed. The result is a really cool swirl on top of the cupcake.

To make the frosting, I used the Wilton chocolate buttercream recipe. Instead of water, I used the juice from a bag of frozen raspberries and then I added some chopped raspberries to the frosting. This gave the frosting a slight hint of raspberry flavoring.

Once the cupcakes were cooled and the frosting was ready to go, I frosted the cupcakes and topped with a fresh raspberry and some pink sprinkles. 

In case you were wondering, this is what the inside of the cupcake looks like with the pie filling. YUM!

HGTV House Hunters

I won another House Party! I have written about House Party before, but for those of you who haven't ready my past posts, it is a Web site where you fill out applications to host a party at your house featuring a product. If anyone has not been to the House Party Web site, yet, check it out now! So far, I have won 7 house parties, and each time I got to sample and share fun products!

This time, I won the HGTV House Hunters House Party. Along with a 1 year subscription to HGTV Magazine, my party pack included:

• 1 Bingo DVD
• 1 Corkscrew
• 15 sets of wine charms
• 15 house hunters bingo cards
• 15 dry erase markers
• 15 coasters
• 25 napkins

DIY Monogram Letter

Anyone who has been on Pinterest knows how how many ideas are out there for DIY craft projects. Many of us have hundreds of ideas pinned, and the thought of completing them is exhausting! For myself and a few of the women I work with, completing a DIY project became a reality last night at our first Suburban Crafter (or project posse) party.

After spending countless hours searching for and sharing ideas via Pinterest, my coworkers and I decided we should get together once a month and actually make something we found! For our first party, we decided to make decorative monogram letters. Everyone was responsible for bringing out their own letter and whatever supplies they wanted to decorate with. Once we got settled with our food and wine, the crafting began!

My Inspiration

We all had different ideas on how to decorate our letters. Buttons, twine, book pages, yarn and flowers were among some of our choices. I decided to go with a twine covered letter, embellished with flowers and hung by ribbon. My inspiration came from a letter I saw on Pinterest. To create a hanging monogram letter you will need the following supplies, all of which can be purchased at your local craft store:

Scissors

Hot Glue

Twine

Wooden or cardboard letter

2 yards of ribbon

Flower embellishments 

To begin, I glued two 1 yard strips of ribbon to the back of the letter. Once the project is complete, these two strips will be tied together in a bow, like in the inspiration photo above. For now, I suggest leaving them untied.

Next, I began wrapping my letter vertically with twine. Start by gluing the end of the twine to the back of the letter and then wrapping the twine around, securing it with glue every few wraps or when necessary to prevent it from slipping. This layer doesn't have to be perfect because we will wrap it horizontally in the next step.

As I was wrapping, I realized I would not be able wrap the entire letter evenly without stopping and re-starting to cover the areas in one smooth layer. This is OK, just be sure to secure the starting and ending parts of the twine to the back of the letter so no one will notice when the letter is complete.

Once you get the letter entirely wrapped vertically, begin wrapping in the other direction. This is the final layer, so take care to make sure it is evenly and perfectly covered. Don't be afraid to use too much hot glue to secure the twine on the back of the letter.

Wrapping the Letter

Once your letter is entirely wrapped and you are satisfied with the results, you need to decide where to add embellishments. I used paper flowers from the scrapbook section of the craft store for mine but be creative as there are many options. I suggest laying out your embellishments before you glue them so that you are sure they are exactly where you want them. Once they are in place secure them with hot glue. Tie the two pieces of ribbon together in a bow and trim the excess.

Finished Product

I can't wait to share the suburban crafter's next project! I think our slogan should be: "tackling projects one pin at a time."

Project Posse