A Handmade Christmas {Week 4 and a giveaway!}

 Welcome to week 4 of A Handmade Christmas! I had fun creating this week and I am hoping that you may have been creating too! If you have please tell me about it in the comments or link it up below!

 My creating this week involved the mess of things above- some scraps of wool, beads, buttons, glue and other odds and ends. Resulting in some fairly quick prettiness! I had fun and then the girls came and joined me and had fun too.

  I was making little wool flower pins (or barrettes). These have become pretty popular, I see them stuck on purses and bags, clipped in the hair, attached to a hat and then also in the normal spot where a pin is supposed to go- the a lapel or shirt. They can look rustic or elegant and they are a lot of fun to make! Not long ago we had been out shopping and Mara and I admired some that we had seen at a store in town, we thought they were pretty but found their $12 price tag to be a little steep and I wondered to myself if they actually sold. The clerk wandered by and I didn't tell him that I thought they were expensive but just admired them and he said they sell like hot cakes! I guess others don't think $12 is too much.

  There are many different types you can make and since I have been keeping a little idea gallery going in my brain from all the different ideas I have seen online I just enjoyed being creative and using a bit of all the ideas I have seen.

To make a pretty and simple rose without any sewing needed (I used hot glue though you could use needle and thread if you wanted.) you simply cut a circle (5-5 inches in diameter) and then cut it in a spiral. This does not need to be perfect. I also cut out a leaf shape.

 Then started with the outside edge of the circle strip, roll it up (the outside of the circle becomes the middle of the rose), gluing as you go along.

 Then you take the little piece from the middle of the circle and glue it over the raw edges on the bottom.

 For this pin I decided to use an old Home Depot pin and so I then glued the flower and the leaf to that pin. Sometimes it comes in very handy to be a hoarder! :-)

After it was all glued together I decided to glue a few little "pearls" to the middle of the rose just for an extra special touch.

I also just cut out some flower shapes (I designed them using a compass, Mara's recent use of it in her math reminded me of it's usefulness) and sewed three of them together with a wooden button in the middle.

 This one I decided to make into a barrette so my next step was to glue and then also sew it on (I am hoping it stays!).

To make another multi layer wool flower but with a different look, I just cut out circles (not worrying about whether they were perfect or not) and then I snipped their edges to give them a raggedy look. I sewed them tightly together with a button in the middle, added a leaf on the underneath and attached it to a pin.

We decided to make Megan something special while she was down helping me. We covered a plastic hoop that comes in the middle of my florist tape with ribbon and then put a one layer wool flower with leaves and beads in the middle. She is quite happy with her new bracelet.

And then I strayed from my wool usage and pulled out some scraps of brocade. I also pulled out an old campaign button- I have quite a few of those and was looking for something to do with them!

 The flower below was made by a strip of cloth, an old button, a bit of ribbon and a little bling in the middle.  You make a knot at the end of the cloth, glue it in the middle of the button and then while twisting the fabric you glue and wind the fabric around from the middle to the outside. I followed a video tutorial which I found at Wonder How To.

 Fabric flowers are each so unique and fun when you made them out of odds and ends of scraps.

Here was what I made in an hour or so:

I am going to give one of these flower pins (or the barrette), pictured above, away to one of you! Just leave a comment telling me which one you would like. You may have additional entries (leave a comment for each one) if you link up a Handmade Christmas post and/or if you follow my blog using google friend connect.

 More flower making fun:

• At Jo's Country Junction- wool flower headbands.
• Ruffled flowers from old wool sweaters. (Video)
• Video on using old sweaters to make felted flowers.

TO LINK UP:
I can't wait to see what you make!

-Please link up a handmade idea that would work for a Christmas gift, decoration or for eating. :-)

-Please make sure it is family friendly.

- Please link back to this blog. I would love it if you also would display my graphic either in your post or on your sidebar so that others can learn about and join this carnival too.

 If the linky tool doesn't work (there have been issues in the past) just leave me a comment with the link to your post in it and then I will put it up in the post myself. Thanks!
And it doesn't seem to be working..... Anyway, check out this post which is full of ideas:
~Kristin @ Gypsy Junk