Flower Tutorial and more...

My name is Tiffany and I am an addict... to fabric flower making that is... I do seriously have a problem as you can see from the collage below.... I'm sharing my latest masterpiece with blogland today. My mother also has an addiction... she spoils my kids with super cute outfits.

My niece's birthday is coming up and I wanted to accessorize her outfit, which matches the one my daughter is wearing at the bottom of this post... from www.kellyskids.com... I'm warning you... don't visit if you don't have deep pockets though... way too cute!!! You'll need a pair of flip flops (these are $1/pair at the dollar store) fabric, felt, buttons, ribbon, hot glue and scissors. To begin with... I traced around the lens cap of my camera and made a pattern. (For larger flowers trace around a larger circle, like a glass or jar lid).. these are for an almost-2-year-old and they are plenty big

For each of the shown flowers you'll need four circles... so stack and cut

Next cut a small piece of felt for each flower... about the size of a 50 cent piece

Take one circle at a time and fold in half like a taco...then fold again into a one-fourth, put a dab of hot glue in the middle when you fold the second time

take another dab of hot glue and place it on the felt, then adhere your fabric

repeat in whatever pattern you like...

for the flower's center, I chose buttons, but the variations are endless...

next you'll want to dress up that $1/pair of flip flops... start with some ribbon and begin wrapping the strap... as you go dab hot glue every little bit to make sure it stays. (Strips of fabric will also work instead of ribbon)

I used quite a bit of hot glue because this ribbon was thick... like every time I went around:)

This is what the wrapped straps will look like... next

cut two more small pieces of felt...

wrap those around the straps as well... use lots of hot glue and make sure the felt is glued to itself...this will keep everything secure once your toddler starts running in these puppies...

place a large dollop of hot glue on the finished flower and center it on the flip flop... make sure the felt of the flower is glued to the felt on the flip flop... this is a very secure bond... almost like gorilla glue.... seriously! Felt on Felt is very strong!

Tah dah... glammed up dollar store shoes!... I couldn't stop there though... I wanted to make a matching headband...

to begin I shrunk the pink flower size just a tad... but kept the white the same size as used for the flip flops

create a bottom layer with the slightly larger circles and then with the slightly smaller circles glue and place the new "petals" on the seams of the bottom layer

Isn't that such a pretty flower...

Just like with the flip flops wrap your headband in felt using quite a bit of hot glue

Place a large dollop of hot glue on the flower and secure it to the headband.

Ahhhh... isn't that sweet!

Photo shoot with Ladybug #3... she says "cheeseburger"

And the sweet little toes... just because...

Hope you enjoyed another LONG tutorial from me:) For a slightly larger flower and with more petals visit The House of Smith's Blog ... just click the link House of Smith's