Spoonful of Imagination

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DIY Burlap Flowers

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diy burlap flowers

I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t born with a green thumb. Most flowers and plants probably see me as the Grim Reaper. “No please, anyone but her!!! Don’t let her take me home!” they scream as they see me and my shopping cart approaching. Kids, no problem. Pets, piece of cake. Put a plant or flower in my care and you might as well say your goodbyes.

So if you are anything like me (or you are in the mood for a cute DIY burlap flower craft) then today’s post is just for you! The flower arrangement, you can’t kill! Sound good? Ok, here’s what you need to get started:

Materials

cutting burlap pieces

The first step is to cut your burlap petals out. I cut strips about five inches wide. Taking the strips I then cut those every four or five inches so I ended up having a stack of burlap squares. From there I eyeballed cutting flower bases out. They don’t all need to be the same. Just make sure they all have the same amount of petals. I cut mine to have four petals. Once you have cut your burlap petals, you are ready to start piecing everything together to make the flowers.

craft supplies

Take one burlap petal piece and hot glue one of the wool felt balls into the center.

DIY burlap projectNext, put a small drop of hot glue on each petal to attach them to the side of the wool ball (as shown below).

wool felt ball and burlapThen hot glue another petal burlap piece below the first one. Turn it so the petals are rotated in between the petals of the first burlap petal piece.

making a burlap flowerHot glue each petal down, and hold each one for a few seconds to make sure the petal seals and the glue sets. Be careful of the hot glue as it squeezes through the burlap.

hot glueing burlap project

burlap and color

Keep adding layers of petals over and over until your flower is as full as you want it to be.

burlap and color ballOnce your flower is as full as you want it to be, take another petal and cut a slit in the middle of it.

burlap flower petal

Stick one of the dowel rods into the hole, and put a huge glop of hot glue on top of it. Then place your finished burlap flower on top, and hold it down for several seconds.

hot glueing burlap

making burlap flower

burlap flowerThen take a small scrap piece of burlap and hot glue it around the edge of the dowel rod and the flower. This step helps strengthen the attachment of the two as well as make the flower look better.

burlap flower stem

burlap flower stemsYour flower is then done! You can make as many flowers as you want! I love that you can take this idea and make lots of different sizes or use the technique to make more than just bouquets. I think the flowers would look cute to make napkin rings, wreaths, or as an ornament to lots of different baskets or buckets.

cute flowers you can makeI put my flowers in a pretty clay vase on the buffet in my dinning room. If you like these burlap flowers, you might like another burlap flower I created and used on hairbows.

buffet decorSo, what about you!? Do you have a green thumb or like the idea of fake flowers too??

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DIY Rope Balls

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Today, I have an easy DIY rope ball craft for you.  I created these pretty rope balls from Dollar Tree supplies  At the end of this post, I will show you a simple change you can do to make the same type of ball have another use.

These balls were inspired from my Savannah girl’s weekend.  Do you remember seeing this picture from my trip?

While we were out shopping, I fell in love with these rustic rope balls.  They were about $8.00 a piece and I knew I could make them cheaper.  I finally attempted to make them, and I love my product.  Here is how you can do it too.

I went to my Dollar Tree and bought yellow boot laces, two packs of clothes line rope, and a package of styrofoam balls.  I ended up also getting a package of styrofoam balls from Hobby Lobby to have a slightly larger size.  Note:  I love the clothes line rope!  It is perfect Christmas colors to help decorate my house for Christmas.  Plus, there was so much of it for only costing $1.00 each!  Score!

I started by hot gluing the edge of my rope onto a styrofoam ball.  My technique was to add a strip of glue and then lay the rope on top about two inches at a time, going down one side of the ball.  I simply wrapped my ball with glue and rope going around and around to create the look of swirls.

Once my “swirls ” of glue and rope were getting smaller as I was getting near to closing the side off, I simply cut the string, added a big glob of glue, and tried to stick the edge of my rope into the glob of glue (in order to cover up any styrofoam from showing).

After you have one side complete, add a little glue at the top and start wrapping down the ball again (until the ball is totally covered up).  I made a lot of these, but I still had a ton of rope left over!

I think they came out so cute, and yet were so easy to make!  They cost so much less than their store look a likes.

My kids are enjoying throwing them all over the house.  It is nice to have a Christmas decor item that is not “breakable” or off-limits.  They can throw these and they wont break or get damaged.  Unless they throw them at something that might break 🙂.  I love red and green and can see myself keeping them out all year-long and not limiting them to just Christmas.

Although they are a rustic/child safe decor item, you can dress them up and display them in a fancier planter for a more elegant look.

My son Caleb told me this planter looked dirty as I put it in my shopping cart this week.  Oh don’t you love a child’s practical thinking!?  It does look dirty, but I love it!  I think these rope balls would even look good in a glass vase like I did with my red ornaments on my Christmas mantle.

Since I had so much left over rope, I decided to get some more styrofoam balls and twist this idea into something that would make great Christmas gifts!  I made some rope ornaments!  My sister Joni, came over and we sat, talked, watched White Christmas, glued rope ornaments, and almost peed in our pants from laughing so hard.  It was a fun night!

The only difference really from just making the rope balls is adding a piece of string, rope, or ribbon first, so there is a way for your ornament to hang on the tree.  We started by cutting a small piece of rope and gluing both of the ends onto the ball.

We then did the gluing technique to add two strips of rope around the ball.  After we had our rope surrounded by the clothes line rope, we simply went down wrapping one side just like we did the ball.  From there, you complete the ornament just like you did the ball.

They look amazing just plain, or adding a simple string bow is cute too!  I think they make such a cute little addition to any gift and look great on the tree!  They are so simple, yet the rows ans rows of string add a fun texture to a rather normal style of a round ball ornament.

Do you add a personal touch to gifts?  Are you making any gifts this year?

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

 

 

 

 

Linked up to:  Shaken Together, Inspired by Charm, Funky Junk Interiors, Shanty 2 Chic, Miss Information, The Frugal Homemaker, DIY Show Off