DIY: Fun With Fake Flowers

Okay, it's officially May today, so I am totally justified in the overwhelming amount of fake flowers that I've been showering myself with lately. I've been cutting and crafting all kinds of artificial blooms in an attempt to wear them somewhere on my bod at all times. Necklaces, hair accessories, crowns, rings, clothing...none of it is safe from my glue gun. I'm actually contemplating how to best get a daisy to lay flat on my cell phone case. I'll report back with findings!

This obsession came on hard and fast and now I've got bags of blooms just waiting to make it on my chopping block (AKA wire cutters and a paper plate). On my first attempt at taming these (fake) wild beauties I took some snaps to share:

SUPPLIES I USED

Fake Flowers  //  Wire Cutters  //  Glue Gun  //  Headband  //  Hair Clip

Not Shown: Felt  //  Chain  //  Jump Rings  //  Clasp

WHAT I MADE

So, for any project you first need to clip off the actual flowers from the stems. I put my wire cutters (scissors might work too) as close to the flower as I could and snipped. 

It looks like this on the back:

Okay? Okay. First up, the SUPER simple hair clip, wherein I just hot glued a flower to a hair clip and am now trying to pass this off as "crafty." Also, my glue gun is disgusting on such a deep level than I'm always ashamed to show it here, but somehow still can't replace it. It's like a scrapbook of all the projects I've made! Or at least that's what I say to feel less gross about still having feather bits from junior high stuck to it.

Glue and press! CRAFTY!

This picture is blurry because I'm a free spirit who is hard to capture in one shot. I'm definitely NOT the kind of lame person who has two versions of Scattergories at the ready at all times! Ignore the multiple Scattergories boxes stacked next to my couch in the background, please.

ANYWAY, next I made a flower necklace with these purple daisy-esque flowers.

I cut a smile-shaped piece of stiff felt and arranged the flowers until I liked how it looked.

Then I trimmed the excess felt so it would be hidden.

To make it a necklace, I poked a jump ring through each end behind the flowers and then added a chain and clasp.

The back looked like this before I added the chain.

Final product. It's like a chest garden, minus the need to grow chest hair.

The final flower project was a highly unnecessary flower crown which will likely never see the world outside my apartment unless I am feeling extra ridiculous, which is ALWAYS a possibility.

First, I laid out some snipped flowers to get an idea of how many I needed and how they would lay out.

For your pleasure, an even closer shot of my horrifying glue gun. There's even an old toothpick stuck on it! Next, I glued them all down, starting in the middle and working my way out. It's a good idea to somehow mark where your ears will be on the headband to keep the flowers above ear level.

The finished crown...officially royal!

The back view.

Bow down to the Flower Queen.

Some Tips:

+ Some fake flowers have no real plastic backing and when you cut them from the stem they might fall apart. Most do have them, but you can check how sturdy the flowers are by popping them off the stem in the store. Or not, if you're less of a jerk than me. I always put them back on!

+ Dollar stores usually have fake flowers, so those are cheap and easy. Sometimes they are also ugly, too. Do some hunting at craft stores (some are SO EXPENSIVE) and find the flowers that are the best value, meaning most blooms in the bundle and lowest price. They also have cheap end-cap displays at Michael's with small bunches for around $1.00. 

+ Always, always, always: use coupons. They always have them on the Michael's website and Joann's mails/emails them out endlessly. Just Google it. 

+ I had less success with good value at Joann's than at Michael's, but that might have been due to my specific flower preferences. 

I'm in the midst of a pretty severe fake flower addiction. I'm working on all kinds of fun necklaces and headbands (a little more wearable than the one featured here) for my Etsy shop and I keep picking up a few bunches on every craft store trip. They are just so fun and easy to work with! Plus, now I get to feel like a living, walking garden pretty much every day, which would be hard to do otherwise.

Would you wear flowers? Or have I just invented a new subculture of Crazy Flower Ladies? Tell me your favorite flowers so I can add more beautiful fakes to my growing collection!

xoxo,
Michelle