Method Playground: Flowers! {eta video tute!}

Spring has sprung at the Playground, and flowers are blooming all over our projects.

I created a pretty little bloom from a remnant of lacey crochet and a scrap of patterned paper.  Here's how:

Cut a length of lace (10-12") and fold in half down the length.

Join the two ends together and stitch (I used my machine for this).

Turn the circle inside out so the ends are on the inside of the ring as shown.

Thread a needle and knot the end.  Beginning at the seam you created, use a running stitch and stitch along the folded edge of the lace pulling tightly into a gather as you go.

Pull tightly into a gathered bunch and knot by tying the beginning and ending threads together tightly. 

Flatten the circle and voila! A beautiful ruffled circle to attach to your next project.

I'm going to try a quick video tute on the paper roses, and if it works out, I will post a link here.  Crossing fingers!

Be sure to check out the DT's amazing creations for lots more inspiration, and then get some flowers blooming on your projects!  Have fun!!

Crochet Headband

Just a quick project share. I finished this up the other night at our Chicks with Sticks meeting (it's so fun to have friends to get crafty with!) I broke the 'rules' a bit and busted out the crochet (not the knitting) because I still can't get enough of it.

Gosh, I look a bit evil in that picture--must be the smirky grin.

Here's a close up:
The pattern uses the shell stitch (just groups of double-crochets).  The Suite 101 website where I originally found this pattern no longer exists.  Here it is for you:

• ch14
• foundation row: sc in 2nd ch from hook; (skip next 2 ch, 5dc in next ch, skip next 2 ch, sc in next ch) twice; turn. (2 shells made)
• row1: ch3 (counts as 1dc); 2dc in first sc, skip next 2dc, sc in next dc, skip next 2 dc, 5dc in next sc, skip next 2dc, sc in next dc, skip next 2dc, 3dc in last sc; turn. (2 partial shells and 1 complete shell made)
• row 2: ch1 sc in first dc; (skip 2 dc, 5dc in next sc, skip next 2 dc, sc in next dc) twice; turn. (2 shells made)
• Repeat rows 1 and 2 until work measures approx. 21½" long, ending with row 1.  Fasten off
• Sew the first and last rows together.

100 Things I Love

In honor of Valentine's Day this year (and because some of my blogging friends were creating similar lists), I jotted down a list of 100 things I love. Then I turned it into a simple LO filled with little doodles, a stitched border, some Thickers, and a bit of felt. And when it was done, I realized I'm a simple girl and it doesn't take a whole lot to make me happy (though who doesn't love a small shopping spree once in a while?)
How about you? What makes you happy? What comforts you? What do you love?

More Flowers

I'm so jazzed by Lolly's Wall Flowers Week and this whole blooming spring thing, that I whipped up a few more flowers:

A great way to use up those fabric scraps. I've attempted these a couple of times and had mixed results. Today I tried a different tactic and they worked so much better (and my fingers weren't coated with glue after). I will attempt to list the steps here, but Rhonna Farrer does a super vid.

1. Tear strips of fabric about 1 1/2" to 2" wide and I don't know, maybe 24" long (this is not an exact science and you can always add in another strip of fabric--even try mixing different fabrics on the same flower).
2. Tie a knot at one end of the strip.
3. Starting at the knot, turn the fabric over, and gather it around the knot, turn and gather, turn and gather, working from the center outwards. You should see a flower start to take shape.
4. When you have a flower you like, use fabric glue or hot glue to glue it to a scrap of felt.
5. Let dry and trim away excess felt backing and voila! a beautiful blooming rose. Embellish with a jewel or pearl button, or whatever fits your style.

These fluffy flowers are also courtesy of Rhonna (video here), and, are you ready for this? They are made with coffee filters! Now, it just so happens that the pot to my coffee maker broke a few years back and we switched to a filterless system. But as luck would have it, the pot broke days after I had just bought a new box of coffee filters. How many coffee filter butterflies can one mom and her three boys really make? Well, I was tickled to rip out that box of filters and whip this up.

Rhonna used 12 filters--6 on each half of the flower. I found that this was not as pooffy as I wanted and added lots more filters in the spaces. It's as easy as folding and stapling individual filters and then hot gluing them into 2 clusters, then gluing them to make a sphere. So super fast and easy!

Flower Power

Spring is finally here, and sometimes the weather even seems to realize it (though not lately with chilly rain and winds). So I thought I would do a little flower tutorial thingie here on my blog. Well, low-and-behold, that crafty Lolly has a flower week going on at her blog right now, and it is AMAZING! So, as I see it, she's doing all the work coming up with the fantabulous ideas and pointing us in the direction of all the how-to's and we can just sit back and create all the fun projects, like these two little beauties I made from her post for yesterday.

Felt flower made with the Sizzix circles die

Wire ribbon rose

Oh my golly, jump on over to Lolly's and check out what she's got blooming!