Imagine walking down the hair bow aisle at one of your favorite stores and realizing that you can make some of the same pretty items that are marked for $5+ for just mere pennies. You can. You don’t have to imagine it. You can create this simple felt hair bow quickly.
Pieces of felt are about $0.20/$0.25 a piece at craft stores. If you get a few colorful sheets, a handful of buttons, and pull out your hot glue gun, thread, needle, scissors, and some clips you are ready to start a masterpiece (or at least a little fun piece :)).
The first thing you need to do is to cut out four circles that are the same size. I eye balled mine, but you could easily trace the rim of a cup onto your felt and cut that out to get a perfect circle that you can be sure to have four of equal’s in shape and size.
Next step, is to fold your circles in half and place them intertwined with each other as shown in the picture below. This step may look harder than it actually is. Have you ever folded a cardboard box top closed where each flap had one corner sticking up? It’s kinda like the same concept. With all four of your felt circles folded in half, stack them while rotating each one so they have that intertwined affect. By the time you have all four folded and pinched in your hand it should look like a complete circle with half of each felt piece facing up. It gives your flower a fun 3D kind of texture.
I then used my thread and sewed stitches all around that caught all four circles and bound them together.
Before completing knotting my thread and cutting the threads off, I cut out a scalloped circle and sewed that and a button on top of all my first ugly stitches.
I then knotted the thread and cut it off my felt flower. I wanted to add another color to my flower, so I cut some leaf petals and hot glued them onto my clip. I then simply glued the felt flower on as well, and it was done!
One of the beauties of knowing how to create these felt hair bows is you can make as many as you want and personalize them to each child or outfit and not break your bank account. Giving hair bows is a fun personal gift and you can also use the same steps of creating this felt flower to make a bunch of flowers and glue onto a wreath, sew onto a shirt or bag, or even glue a small one onto a greeting card. There are lots of possibilities, if you just use your imagination!
Do you love felt too? All these cold winter days make me crave a good felt project. Something like this would be an easy Valentines gift to make your little girl or use as party favors!
What would you do with some felt flower creations?
Words impact us. Encouraging words lift us up. Hurtful words can sting for longer than we think. Words can mark us.
, and used a simple stencil, white paint, and paintbrush to complete an inspiring piece for me to wear.
Once I had my stencil laid where I wanted it in the center of the sweatshirt, I got a little white paint and started dab painting in my stencil.
I got a little paint on my brush, and then dabbed the bulk of it off onto my plate, so the paint did not ooze under my stencil. I dabbed the paint into my stencil rather quickly to fill in the stencil yet not create a “solid” look. I think this technique creates a more worn, yet intentional screen print look.
One tip to keep in mind is to hold your stencil down tightly as you dab the paint in. This will help prevent any ooze of paint outside your stencil.
That is it! The next step was to let it dry and wear it proudly! I personally just wore this for like four days straight. 🙂
I love anytime you can make something with a personal meaning for less than $10! Can you see making a sweatshirt with your word?
I pray that I look back on 2014 and I see areas where I put my own desires aside and I loved well as I choose to shine for Christ and be about more than myself. May this be a marking year in all our lives. Please, please tell me your word so we can encourage one another. Leave me a comment here or tag me on 
A lot of my most special gifts are ones people have made me. I can think of the T-shirt quilt my mom made me as a high school graduation present using all of my favorite childhood shirts. I think of the stamp, business cards, and organizer book Matt made me for me first little craft company years ago. Handmade gifts can be some of the best. They show time and effort and can’t help but make you feel special.
I am busily trying to finish up a few gifts of my own. We have a week till Christmas! Let’s imagine the joy we can bring to someone by taking the time to create something especially for them.