Fall Flowers Wreath & tutorial

Hello to everybody out there who follows my blog or just stumbled onto this post.  Wow, it's been a long while since I made a new post!  I actually took an extended vacation back to the states with my children for the summer.  It was a great time, and I have SO much stuff to share with you all from my visit.  I wish I could have blogged during my trip, but no computer made it kinda hard.

We are now back home in Germany and the kids and I have started school again.  This semester I'm taking a statistics class.  I'm glad I like math :) But, I do hope to get plenty of blogging done this fall in order to catch you all up on some of my projects.


If you know me at all, you know that I love to make seasonal wreaths.  Click here to see last year's Fall wreath.  This fall is no exception. I have a fabulous wreath to share with you today, and I have a tutorial on how to make the flowers and the leaves for the wreath as well.  I'm also proud to report that I only used supplies from my stash to make this wreath and the form was donated from a friend who was going to toss it in the rubbish bin.  Oh how I love being thrifty ;)



To make the Fall Flowers Wreath

Supplies:
Vine style wreath form
Felt in gold, yellow, burnt orange, and green
Hot Glue
Twigs
ribbon for hanging
scissors

This wreath is all about the fall colored flowers.  Once you make the flowers and leaves, the rest of the wreath is pretty much self explanatory.  So I'm going to focus this post on making these rolled felt flowers.  There are a lot of great felt flower tutorials out on the web, and I've pinned lots of them :)  But, I've been irritated that many of them are a bit vague on the details needed to make your felt flowers look their best.



Rolled Felt Flower Tutorial:

Rolled felt flowers are very easy to make and don't require much precision or any kinds of templates.  They are drop dead simple as long as you follow a few rules.

1. Cut a circle in any size.  The bigger the circle, the bigger the flower.  I generally start with a circle a bit smaller than a dvd disc and use that as my baseline.  Then, I can cut more flowers bigger or smaller depending on my needs.

2. Cut a spiral shape into your circle.  Just start anywhere on the circle and cut an inwards spiral.  If you cut thin spiral arms, your flower will be wide but not tall.  Thicker spiral arms make taller flowers that are not as wide.  Cut loosely without worrying about being perfect.  Avoid jagged cuts that make sharp peaks (if you get a peak, just trim it).  Variation in height makes your flowers look more realistic.

Also, don't cut off the middle part of the circle! You need to leave this attached circle in the middle of your flower.  This will be used later as the flap that seals your flower petals together and keeps them from unrolling down the line.



3.  Now take the outside spiral edge and dab a bit of hot glue about 1/2 inches away from the tip.  You don't want to put the glue right on the tip because it will leak out of the center of your flower and show.  I put it a bit too far away in this photo, but I'm sure you get the general idea.



4. Begin rolling your flower center from this tip.



5. Continue rolling your flower.   Don't roll it too tight. Loosen some turns and wobble it slightly.  You want it to have a loose relaxed feel without it falling apart.  Dab a bit of hot glue every few turns in order to keep everything together.



6.  Once you reach the center.  Put a generous glob of hot glue on the bottom of the flower.



7. Now, here's where that center flap comes back in.  Fold your center flap down over the bottom of the flower and press it in.  This will lock all your petal layers into place and seal your flower together forever.



That's it! Super easy and simple right :)  Now, if you've done it right you will have a flower that is loose and interesting.




You are also going to want to cut a few leaves for this wreath.  I like the addition of a bit of green just to break up all the warm tones from the wood and the flowers.  You can just cut regular leaves and be done with it, or you can add an easy vein to your leaves to make them a bit more interesting.

Making A felt leaf with a vein:

Adding a vein to your leaves is simple.  Make a thin line of hot glue down the center of your rough cut leaf shape. Fold the leaf along the glue line and hold it until the glue sets a bit.  Then, unfold it and while the glue is still a bit warm tug the leaf so it bends back a bit otherwise it will be too straight and stiff from the glue.



Putting it all together:

Now that your flowers and leaves are all done, you can begin to arrange them on your wreath.  There is no formula for this.  Just start by gluing one flower down and the rest will fall into place. Just relax and trust your own sense of style.



I personally decided to add a few small twigs here and there in the flower arrangement.  I covered a little more than half the wreath with the flowers.

 

I then took my larger twigs and placed them on the side of the wreath where I didn't glue any flowers.  If you can put a dab of hot glue onto the ends of your twigs before burying them into your wreath form, it will help to hold them in place.



Finally, add your ribbon so that you can hang your new wreath up and enjoy it all Fall.



I hope that you've enjoyed this tutorial and use it to make your own fall flowers wreath.  As always, I'd love to hear about any projects you've made from this tutorial.

How do you get ready for Fall?