Petal Ornaments

Just stopping in for a quick post to showcase some ornaments I've created this holiday season.  I love the layers of petals - they are really light weight and look great on a tree.  Hope you are enjoying your Monday!

DIY Button Flowers

As promised in a previous post, here is a tutorial for making colorful and easy button flowers.  They are a great addition to add a pop of color to any room AND they don't die!  I like making multi colored flowers but I also really like to make monochromatic flowers.  The monochromatic flowers are great to enhance accent colors in a room.

Things you'll need:

Floral Wire - I used 22 gauge

Wire Cutter

Pliers

Buttons

Cut a piece of floral wire in the desired length.  You will need to double the length because you have to fold it in half to string on the buttons.  Leave a little extra length at the bottom so you can twist the wire once the buttons are in place.

Here's the fun part -- design your button flower.  Place the buttons (and any other fun things you decide to play with - like a washer) in the order you want them displayed.

Now string the buttons onto the wire.  Start with the top button first and make sure to pull it all the way to the top of the wire so there is no gap between the wire and buttons.  Then add the other buttons.

Once all of the buttons are on the wire, pull them to the top so they are tight.  Then twist the wire to secure it under the bottom button.



Now keep twisting the wire all of the way to the bottom.  To make sure the buttons stay in place, hold the wire in place under the bottom button and then use your other hand to twist the wire pieces.



Once you have twisted the wire to the bottom, use your pliers to bend the sharp ends down.  Then wrap them around and cut off the ends.  This keeps the wire from unraveling and it also gets rid of the sharp points.

Now you have one flower finished!  You can make as many as you want to fill vases, Mason jars, tie with ribbon, or find other fun uses.

Enjoy your flowers!



Button Flowers

I'm not very good with real flowers.  They are so pretty and brighten up a room but I'm terrible with keeping them alive for more than a couple of days.  I'm that way with any plant really.  Exhibit A -- a Mother's Day gift that didn't even make it until the end of May...

I don't know how my kids and pets survive but somehow I can keep them plugging along.  Summer started with 3 healthy kids and school recently started with 3 healthy kids - SCORE!

To brighten up the house (and also for my upcoming craft show), I decided to start making these colorful button flowers.  My plan is to make a boat load of these because they are so cute in vases, Mason jars, tied with ribbon, etc.  I've been making multi-colored flowers but will be making monochromatic flowers and I have some other ideas for non-button flowers.  I'm just hoping I can part with them when the time comes because I find them to be so cheery and adorable.

I will be posting some instructions in a later post on how to make some of these for your own house.  They are pretty easy to make and can be really fun too.

So far all of my button flowers are still alive and no wilting has occurred!  I'm hoping to buy some buttons in bulk online -- any supplier suggestions???