Felt Flower Crown

Make your own flower crown that will last season after season with felt flowers. We'll show you how to make leaves and different types of flowers but this is all about experimenting and trying different petal shapes and sizes to see what you like. You want to use a variety of colors, shapes and sizes for your flowers and your leaves. For our crown we used 40 leaves and 19 flowers. Our largest flower (the big blue one) is 4" wide and our smallest ones (the small blue or orange ones) are around .5" wide.

If you don't like a flower you're working on, try adding on more elements to see if that helps. You may end up cutting something that just isn't the right size or shape for the flower you are currently making. You can set that aside and use it later on for a different flower. If you make the same type of flower twice it may not turn out exactly like the first and that's ok. In fact it's good since that's the way flowers work in nature, each one has it's own unique shape. Just remember that it's ok if some of your flowers fail, half of what's fun about this project is trying different techniques to see if you like them.

• Felt in various colors
• Ribbon- 3/4"-1/2" wide, cut to length based on head size
• Hot glue gun
• Scissors

You can cut out different leaf shapes based on an ellipse (a long, stretched circle). You can make both ends pointed or one pointed and one round. Your leaf can be long and thin, short and fat or in between. Having lots of different leaf types will make your flower crown more realistic. You can add serrated edges to your leaf by cutting little "v's" out of the initial shape like in the second photo. We ended up making 40 leaves total for our crown.

For this flower you need a long, thin rectangle of fabric. The width will determine the flower's height- it will be half as tall as the rectangle is wide. The length will determine the flower's width, the longer the strip the wider the flower will be when you wrap it all up. Our strip was 12"L x 3"W so our flower is 2"W x 1.5"T. Each flower is unique so yours may not turn out that exact size even if you start with the same size strip.

Fold the strip in half, long way and glue it down. Make sure you glue only on the edge so that you have an open pocket (like in photo #2). Next, cut little slits in the folded over section. The slits should stop at the glue line so that you don't cut all the way through the fabric (photo #3). Once that's done you will roll the strip up, gluing it in place at the bottom (non-cut part) until you have a full flower.

For this flower you can cut a pretty standard oval flower petal shape with a flat bottom. To give each petal dimension you can accordion fold the bottom and glue it into place. Glue the right edge of the petal to the middle like in photo #2. Flip the petal over and do the same for the right side, folding it and gluing it in the middle. Now one side will be folded up and one folded down. Do this with all the petals then glue them together by just stacking them as you go. If you don't like how the middle looks, you can make a small version of the previous flower for the middle.

We'll start with the middle of this flower by making a small circle and cutting slits in it toward the center. Put a small dab of hot glue in the middle and then pinch the circle together to make it look like a semi circle of cut felt. This can work really well or very poorly so feel free to try again if you're first go doesn't look great.

You'll need eight petals in the paddle shape shown in photo #4. Put glue all along the bottom edge of one of the petals and pinch it in place (photo #5) so that it ends up with a little curve. Add a second curved petal opposite of the first. Now that the base shape is established you can just add on more petals as is, without pinching them as they dry.

If you want to add another pop of color and texture to your flower you can cut a little rectangle of felt fringe to wrap around your center semi circle, gluing it in place as you go.

Cut out the shape in photo #1, like a blunted tulip. If you make them different heights your flower will have a bit more depth to it. 20 of those made two flowers but that will depend on how thick the center is on yours, you may have to cut more petals.

After they are cut out start by making the middle with a rectangular piece of felt. The height will depend on how tall you want the middle- will it stick above the petals or set down inside of them? You can look at the last photo and see two different variations of this type of flower, that may help you decide how to make yours. Cut slits along the rectangle 2/3 of the way down. Then roll it into a cylinder, gluing as you go.

Finally, add petals. You can start gluing short petals and move to taller ones as you go or vice versa. Again, you can look at the two flowers in the final photo to see what it looks like either way.

This one is pretty simple. Cut a circle, then cut a spiral into it. Start rolling it into a cylinder at the center, gluing as you go.

Cut out some blunted tulip shapes, three or four should work for this one. For the middle of the flower, roll the petal shape into a spiral & glue. Then glue on more petals wrapping around the outside.

For this flower you want to cut out an apple-like shape like in photo #1. Cut a slit into all of the petals about halfway in. Glue the slit back together, overlapping it a bit so that it has dimension (photo #2). Keep gluing the the petals together, adding them to the back of the last one until your flower is as full as you want it to be. You can add a circle or other adornment in the middle if you want.

This flower is made up of lots of small petals stacked on top of each other. The petals in this flower are one 1/2 tall and 1/4 wide with flat bottoms. You need a thick stem to go in the middle of it, you can make this by cutting a long, thin strip and folding it over in half longways.

To glue on the petals, add some glue onto the bottom, flat part, and wrap it around the stem. Wrap a second petal around the stem in the opposite direction, you can see this in photo #3. Now keep adding petals, twisting around the stem as you go to make the petal portion as long as you want.

Add on the leaves. Now cut a ribbon, a fatter ribbon works good- 1/2" wide- so that you have space to securely glue the flowers onto it. Make sure you leave at least 4" on either end so that you can tie it together. As you add flowers, make sure you stack them to give it a dimensional look.