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Kathrynn

Felt Bows! Felt Bows! Felt Bows!

What is it about girls and bows? We love them as little girls and later as older girls and even sometimes as truly older girls. I have a long history with bows (especially red ones) and these are so simple and versatile. Felt bows can be used to make accessories, adorn other DIY projects, or to dress up a gift! As I go through this DIY I will show variations through the steps for those of you doing headbands or hair clips. Have fun with your bows!

Set Up:

• Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Felt Sheets (1 sheet makes 3 bows)
• Optional: Hair Clips, Headbands, etc.
• Time: Making Mac ‘n Cheese per 3 bows

Step One: Make a Pattern & Cut your pieces!

Make Patterns! I’m all about patterns as you can see from the last post, so yet again if you’d like to keep your bows uniform that you make a pattern that suits your needs. Felt bows require three separate pieces that you can modify as you go. The large bow piece which looks like a tiny bra or swimming goggles, straight pieces for the center, and long pieces for the tails (is that what they’re called?). Tip: If you would like your bow to be more pointy than make the rounded pieces of the main bow diamond shaped instead of oval.

Step Two: Make the base!

 Take the bra piece (that’s what we’ll call it) and glue each side to the center, overlapping the second piece on top of the first.

Step Three: Add the tails! 

Tip: Cut and adjust the tails after you've glued them down

Tip: Cut a tiny pocket where the middle will fold under

There are several options with tails depending on what you are making. for the simple bow with a triangular tail you will cut your tail piece in half and glue the halves together like a triangle, then you will cut and adjust them as needed. Glue the middle section where the two pieces meet to the back of your bow's base. HEADBAND VARIATION: If you are doing a headband I strongly recommend keeping your tail piece flat and gluing the center of it directly to the headband as pictured below. You will then need to glue down the center of your bow base to the tail.

Tip: Put the glue directly on the headband then pinch the center of the tail piece.

Step Four: Add the center!

There will be a few variations here. All bow centers will start the same. put a strip of glue down the center of your bow's base and vertically glue the center piece down.

For any other bow you will be gluing similarly to the headband, for the hair clip you will add a clip. Put a strip of glue on the underside of your bow and pull one side of the center piece tightly around your base and glued down. Allow this piece to dry and then snip off the excess felt. Repeat this with the other side of the center piece. For headbands: make sure that you pull the center piece tightly around the head band. For hair clips: Clip the clip onto the center piece where you would like it to sit. Place glue on the underside of your centerpiece around where the base of the clip is. Let it dry, then clip the excess felt. Repeat this for the other side of the center.

Tip: The tighter you pull the center pieces on the headband the more "bow like" your headband bow will appear.

Step Five: You're done! 

Once you get the hang of these you can knock them out like crazy and do variations with them! Play with the bows as much as you like. Use them for everything! Go Bow crazy!!

These bows were created with the pointy bases which gives them a more "tuxedo" look.

Enjoyed the tutorial but don't feel like spending the time? Well pop on over to the ETSY shop and buy one or two or four for yourself! 

DIY St. Patrick's Day Bunting

Bunting is quickly becoming an infectious disease all over Pinterest. Every party seems to have a bunting sign. I've done several buntings with paper but for something a little more lasting felt is a great option! Since St. Patty's day is coming up let's step by step through some sweet, sweet bunting!

Set Up:

I realize there's other items in this photo, be patient!

• Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
• Scissors
• Puff Paint (Green & Gold)
• Felt Sheets (2 Sheets Dark Green, 2 Sheets Army Green, 2 Sheets Green, 2 Sheets Bright Green, 1 Sheet Cream)
• Yarn spool
• Cardstock Paper
• Time: 5 Episodes of Gossip Girl and 2 Episodes of Say Yes to the Dress

Step One: Make a Pattern! Cut some triangles!

Make Patterns! Grab that card stock and make yourself a triangular pattern! Make at least 2 triangles (you'll need one later). Each sheet of Felt will make 5 Triangles. Use the straight edges of the felt sheets to your advantage to maximize your triangles. Tip: Use chalk to mark your pattern on the felt, it will rub off later! 

Step Two: Fold over & Glue triangles! 

Use a thin line of glue on the top of your triangles and glue down with enough space open to thread your yarn through. Make sure to cut the excess felt on either side.

Step Three: Add Circles for Letters!

Tip: Use a circular kitchen item to create a perfect circle

Now it's time to use that extra triangle! Draw out a circle on your pattern to create a circular pattern. Tip: Cut squares and fold in half to create symmetrical circles. It takes about one sheet or less of each for circles.

Step Four: Create Lettering!

The best way to create lettering is small rectangles that fit within your circles. Lots of letters are symmetrical-fold those letters in half to create perfect lettering. Tip: Create the small holes in letters by folding over the letters and cutting carefully-round first then straight!

Step Five: Avengers Assemble!

Well maybe not the Avengers (though that's a pretty kick butt movie), but here is the part where you assemble your felt pieces. First, glue letters to circles, Second glue circle onto flags. Tip: Put glue on half of the circle and lay down, then put glue on the other half and lay down, hot glue dries fast! 

Step Six: Add Embellishments! 

Tip: Puff Paint is slow to dry and dries much flatter than it appears on! Make sure to use a paper towel to constantly wipe the tip of the bottle for a nice clean line.

This is the fun part! Decide how you want your design to be patterned, don't over design it or your beautiful bunting will start looking cheap. For this bunting I used the green puff paints to create shamrocks on the first and last letter of every word and gold puff paints to create a dotted border on each circle. The most important part of this step is letting the puff paints DRY! Sometimes even over 

night!

Step Seven: Create Spacers!

Some people may think this is an optional step! Totally up to you and totally depends on what you're spelling! But remember that letters all right next to each other will not look very much like words. You'll want to avoid it being read "HAPPYSTPATRICK'SDAY" after a few green beers. Here's a few sub-steps to creating Shamrock Spacers!

Step 1: Cut 4 squares out of the Bright Green & the Green
Step 2: Cut the Green squares into 16 smaller squares (4 each).
Step 3: Fold the squares in half and cut out half of a heart shape. Yep, hearts and shamrock leaves look the same!

Step 4: Place the hearts onto the Bright Green squares in a shamrock shape leaving space for the Bright Green to show through. Glue down the hearts according to your spacing.
Step 5: Cut a border around the Bright Green to create one big shamrock.

Step 6: Add a loop to the back of the shamrocks so that the yarn will be able to pass through it. For this I cut a small centimeter thick strip of felt from the scraps and put a small strip of glue at the top, then a small strip of glue to the bottom.

Step 7: Add embellishments to the Shamrocks. I chose to use the gold to create the fold in the leaves and some extra decoration on the tips.

Step 8: String it all together! 

Take your yarn and tie the end of it to a safety pin. Thread the safety pin through and bunch each flag slightly to get to the end. Tip: This method also works with those pesky drawstrings that pull out of your old sweatpants! Start backwards (at the end of the sentence) and go forward, once you get to the beginning of the bunting tie one end to something stable so you can space out how much yarn you will need to leave on either end of the bunting. 

Step 9: You're done! 

Congratulations! You're finished! Now hang your bunting and eat some potatoes and drink some Guinness! 

Enjoyed the tutorial but don't feel like spending the time? Well pop on over to the ETSY shop and buy one for yourself! 

Welcome!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my DIY Blog! This is the place where I will teach you how to do all the crazy and awesome crafty things that my brain has come up with. For years my friends have been asking me to help them with party decor, weddings, etc. and always asking how do I do it? Well now I will tell you. I'm also pairing this blog with my etsy shop for those of us that want to know how to do it, but don't actually want to do it ourselves. I'm always interested in creating custom products as well so feel free to contact me with requests and ideas!

Happy Crafting everyone!