Hello there, Peeps!
Have you been following along with Melissa's and Mishie's 12 Days of Christmas Blogging Event? Each day they've been posting different crafty ideas for you as well as fun recipes, perfect for the holiday season. Today is Day 10 and they've asked Heather Nichols and me to play along and I couldn't resist saying yes! Today's theme is stocking stuffers & gifts for girls of all ages and I've got a REALLY fun gift idea for you that is not only easy AND affordable, but also something super trendy and adorable!
Have you noticed all of the flower pins and flower-embellished tops and sweaters that are popping up all over, both in stores and on Etsy lately? Well, how about saving a few dollars and making some flower pins of your own?
I love how easy it is to dress up a simple t-shirt and cardigan -- aren't those flowers CUTE?!
If your weather is anything like ours right now, you might be wearing a scarf everyday in an effort to keep warm. If that's the case, you can also pin one of your felt flowers right to your scarf!!
And let's not forget the little girls......these felt flowers make great hair accessories when hot glued to headbands or hair clips. AND, they can also be pinned onto stocking caps for girls of ALL ages! Tuck them into stockings, give them as gifts in 2011 for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day or even birthdays for the women in your life.
I used Papertrey's new Bloom Builders dies to create all of these flowers. I started off by die cutting the felt, tying the petals together and then stitching all of the layers together by stitching a button thru all the layers. Easy. Trust me on this. THEN, I used the circle die from the Limitless Layers collection to die cut a matching circle for the back of each flower. I also bought a package of 3/4" bar pins in the jewelry making section at Michael's for just a few dollars. Then I simply hot glued the circle to the back of the flower to make it a bit cleaner and nicer looking and then I hot glued the pin onto the circle.
One package of Papertrey's felt is enough to create 3 of these flowers, if you're using the Bloom Builders dies and include one layer of each size petals in your flowers like I did here. If you make 3 flowers from one package of felt, you should end up with just a smidge of felt left over when you're done.
I created lots of these felty flower pins to give as gifts for Christmas, keeping in mind the recipients' favorite colors.
I also had so much fun using lots of those gorgeous great big buttons that come in Papertrey's button bags!
And then, since I already had all my supplies out, it really seemed the most efficient thing to do, to go ahead and make a couple more flowers for myself while I was at it. You know, purely in the interest of saving time down the road....... :)
You're not the least bit surprised that these are the two colors I decided to make for myself next, are you?
Side note: Can I also just say that I put a pure poppy button in the center of my raspberry fizz flower and I. LOVE. IT.
We've already given one of the flower pins away and this is how I packaged it up. We were also giving a gift card, so I tucked the gift card and flower into a large glassine bag, stuck a paper doily on the front of the bag, tied a bow and added one of the gift tags I made earlier in the season! Cute!!
Lastly before I go, Melissa & Mishie have been sharing recipes with you each day and the one I'd like to share is one of my mom's from an old church cookbook.
Do you have any old church cookbooks? Sometimes they're the best kind of cookbook because often, they're filled with tried and true recipes that have been used and loved and handed down from one generation to the next. (Although in the case of this recipe, Mom can't remember where she got it! Ha.)
This recipe is for Sticky Buns (click photo to view recipe larger) and my mom used to make these for us for special occasions and even just mornings when she wanted to make us a special treat out of the blue. I have very fond memories of these sticky buns and eating them with my family when I was growing up. They're sooo not healthy but they're soooo yummy! I haven't had them in years, but I was just talking to my mom about them this morning, and I think we might just have to whip up a batch for Christmas this year. They'd be great for Christmas morning breakfast or even for dessert after Christmas dinner! Let me know if you try them out!
Don't forget to visit Melissa, Mishie and Heather today. And thanks, Mish & Melis, for letting me play along in your 12 Days Blog Event!
Happy crafting and baking, Friends!
