Freezer paper stenciling

In November, in preparation for our Craft Social, I tried freezer paper stenciling for the first time. I didn't experiment with many fabrics so I can't say whether my less-than-perfect results were due to the fabric type or due to my tendency to apply too much paint. Maybe both.
Above are bags we gave to our kids' cousins for Christmas. My kids helped choose the images and paint colors, but I did the cutting, ironing and painting.
Also above is a bag I made for my sister. We're Seinfeld fans so I painted on a quote that I thought would be funny when remembering the context and appropriate for grocery shopping (although I don't know if she uses it in that capacity or not). It was fun to make but definitely tedious in cutting all those letters. I probably should have re-ironed it before taking a picture.
If you've never tried freezer paper stenciling but would like to, here's a tutorial to get you started. I would just advise that you use a pretty smooth fabric and enough paint to fill out your stencil without over applying it. Maybe a onesie with a stenciled shamrock is in order for St. Patrick's Day? Everything's cuter on onesies.

A Recycled Valentine's Day

Hello! Nothing like a cute and completely Hallmark-ized holiday to draw me back into blogland.
I'm still here, but have been spending more time reading, watching movies, going to meetings, organizing meetings, celebrating meaningful holidays and merely doing nothing than I have been crafting or blogging (that one's obvious).
I felt motivated to blog about this little Valentine project, though (let's hope it's like riding a bike), and I may find blogging again gets me excited to come back on a regular basis. Who knows?

So, Valentine's Day....Instead of buying the cute but unnecessary trimmings and trappings, ribbons and wrappings from Target, I've dug into my stash of recyclable containers, fabric and paper to wrap up some little gifts for the fam. I didn't try anything elaborate or time-consuming, just wrapped, taped and glued some pieces to these jars.
Try decorating any kind of container you can easily wrap, it doesn't have to have a lid, and stuff your tissue-wrapped gifts inside. Add gift tags with glue, string them through ribbons or print out your message on the wrap itself. Oops, I forgot to do that.
Happy Valentine's Day!
And many thanks to Starbucks and Jif. You provide all sorts of creative opportunities in our home, and anytime you're interested in sending free products, we'll gladly accept.

Back-to-School Scavenger Hunt and Eco-friendly school supplies

My daughter starts kindergarten this year. We have decided to homeschool. This year. Just meaning I have no earthly idea if either one of us will take to it so I have no expectations whatsoever of what we'll do next year. But since we are doing it this year, I'm needing to get things in order around here.
I've been caught up in researching our teaching/learning materials and haven't thought much about preparing my daughter for the event. She's never been to preschool so the whole concept of school (except, of course, for her experience in our one-morning-a-week co-op last year) is still foreign to her. And homeschool is foreign to me. I think we both need something special to kick off the new year.
I prepared the idea for this back-to-school scavenger hunt for the Celebrations radio show, but didn't have a chance to share it. I've decided to use it with my daughter, whom I expect will be thrilled. Ours will, of course, be the start-of-school version.
Here you go....

Collect some of the items your child will need for school: pencils, crayons, glue, scissors, maps, book (on a topic they've chosen to study or one you know they'd enjoy reading), homemade reusable sandwich/snack bags, lunch bag, thermos or water bottle, interesting ribbon or key chain for house key, favorite snack, bracelet, socks, tiny tissue pack, markers, clay, paint, etc .
Find a school-related image (books, bus, globe, crayons, map, school building, etc.) online or scan one into your computer then print out several small copies onto cardstock. Cut them out and fold like cards or leave them flat like postcards. Use these for your scavenger hunt clues.
Hide the supplies/gifts around your house or outdoors and create clues to lead your child on a hunt for each item. Provide your child with something for collecting her goodies or lead her 1st to a new school bag or box.
Print or write your clues inside or on the back of your clue cards. Be cute and simple.
Example: I'll carry water or milk for you to drink. Look for me under your kitchen sink. (New drinking bottle in the play kitchen).
Monster, bug or bike. Sculpt me how you'd like. Stretch me, roll me, push me, pull me. Find me next to your blanket that's woolly. (New clay hiding on the bed).
After your child has collected all her new items, help her open them and prepare them for school, putting in her bag or arranging in her home study space.

If you're thinking of going green this school year, here's a short list of resources.

Stylish and eco-friendly snack bags, boxes, and bottles
Betz White's sandwich wrap
LunchSkins Reusable Sandwich Bag
Fresh Snack Pack
Stainless steel lunch box
Stainless steel lunch bowl and boxes
Not your plastic Strawberry Shortcake thermos

Eco-art and school supplies
Smencils and more at Stubby Pencil Studio
Recycled newspaper colored pencils and cute stuff
Adhesive paste
Binders, notebooks, and paper

Ribbon and felt pocket bracelets

We celebrated my daughter's birthday yesterday with two of her friends and a trip to the Exploritorium. After playing, snacking, and opening gifts, I gave each of the girls one of these little pocket bracelets I had made just before walking out the door. (Why plan ahead and ruin my reputation?) I had filled them with M&Ms so they would have a little surprise upon opening them.
These were really quite easy to make and I figured the girls would enjoy having a tiny pocket filled with secret treasures on their wrists. My mistake was not making the flap of the envelope/pocket longer with the button hole a little lower, allowing the pocket to expand a bit more when filled. It still works nicely for very small treasures such as 5 M&Ms, tiny notes, spare change, small jewelry items, etc. Just a thought, in case you end up making some.
These would make sweet little Easter gifts, too.
If I get around to making a more masculine version for my son, I'll post that, as well.

Fabric Valentine garland

Another common, but always special, garland is a fabric heart garland. For mine, I created 3 different cardboard heart templates, traced them onto festive fabrics and cut them out. I placed each fabric heart on a piece of felt of the same size, sewed them together and pinked the edges. Lastly, I sewed the whole string (of 5 hearts) from top to bottom (or was it bottom to top?), leaving the thread long at the top for hanging. I put narrow strips of tissue paper in the gaps between the hearts when sewing to give the thread something to grab on to, then pulled out the paper when I finished.
Next up, a guest post at Blissful Kids and the final piece of our holiday garland sampler. 3 posts in one day! Does that help make up for going MIA during the months of December and January?

Shoebox terrarium

Last week, we finally got around to something I've been intending to do for quite some time. We made terrariums (or vivariums): little plant/animal habitats. This is a fun project and, like so many of my favorite projects, can be made with household items and minimal craft supplies.

Materials for making your own toy terrarium:
cardboard box with lid (the hinged shoeboxes or mailing boxes are great)
thin, clear plastic (like bedding packaging, salad greens container, etc.)
magazines with nature photography
foamy filler (like polyester fiberfil, cotton batting, t-shirt or fabric scraps, etc.)
felt
cardboard scraps, plastic lid, cardboard tube
rocks, sticks
double-stick tape, glue stick, craft glue
X-acto knife
scissors

1) Begin by cutting, with your X-acto knife, a window in the lid and side(s) of your box, leaving enough room around your window to tape down the plastic. Cut your plastic next, larger than the windows. I used a clear package that held a mattress pad. I've had similar packaging from bed linens, storage bags, and other household items. You could also cut out from the lid or bottom of a grocery store-purchased spinach bin .
Use double-stick tape around your windows to tape down the plastic.

2) Cut nature photos from magazines and tape or glue to the interior of your box.

3) Line the bottom of your box with a shallow layer of filler. I used polyester fiberfil, but you could use any batting, fabric scraps, newspaper bunches, etc. Cut a piece of felt a little larger than the base of your box. Line the edges of the base with craft glue and press down the edges of the felt to cover the bottom.

4) Add your plant life. I glued some nature images to thin cardboard (eggs, leaf) and cut them out. I also glued felt to cardboard and cut out grass/plant and nest shapes. For our water basin, I glued felt around a 1/2" deep jar lid, and filled the inside like I did the box-with fiberfil and felt to cover. Cover a cardboard tube with felt to make a log. Add natural elements like rocks and sticks.

5) Finally, add your animals. We used little toy frogs, lizards, and snakes, that tend to come home in party bags.

We did not decorate the box exterior, but you could take it a step further and do that, as well.
My kids call it the frog house and are asking for another, since this one is rather small. I did construct this one by myself, primarily, but I'm thinking next time they could choose images, glue them on, make some plants, add the nature elements, and decorate the box exterior. Older children could participate more fully in the design and construction.

Beginning embroidery

Thank you all for the kind comments on my handprint embroidery. I've enjoyed seeing your own examples, too, as you've provided me with links. Lovely! Like some of you have said, I need to focus next on making one for our own family. Maybe in a frame. Almost too cute to give away, but luckily simple enough to quickly make one for yourself.
Here are some answers to a few questions I've received and links for those of you still wanting to embroider the handprints of your children or for those of you looking to get started embroidering anything.

I used the Backstitch with all 6 threads of embroidery floss. I thought this made a nice solid outline which is just what I wanted for this project.
I considered using linen fabric, but couldn't find a shade I wanted in my local fabric store. I ended up with a cheaper natural-looking cotton. I don't even remember if it had a name.
I don't know how long this project took me from start to finish. A couple hours for the actual embroidery? I do know it takes longer if you're watching Little Women while you work. Maybe the soundtrack would allow me to be more efficient.
The acrylic paint dried pretty quickly on the hoop, but you'll want a couple coats. So it all depends on how many fragments of time you have to yourself. It took me a couple, or a few, days from start to finish, but it could definitely be finished in less than one.

This was my first shot at embroidery and if this is the case with you, here are some instructional links for you:
Primrose Design-see the sidebar for Stitch School posts.
Sublime Stitching-see the How To section (their image above).
Instructables-Embroidery 101
YouTube-search under embroidery stitches, basic embroidery, embroidery tutorial, etc.
I saw a lot of other sites that looked helpful, as well, but didn't necessarily use them this time around. Here's a couple:
Needle'N'Thread
Needlework

I hope that helps! If you have any other questions or pictures of your own projects, let me know! I'll be sure to post my next embroidery project, too.
Merry Christmas and Happy Embroidering!

Embroidered hand prints

I am on my way, right now, to visit family for the week. It will be a fun and busy week, as we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving, early Christmas, and participating in a wedding shower for my sister. Whew.
I'm not very good about getting gifts made ahead of time (or even on time, for that matter), but I did manage to create a keepsake for my parents and grandparents that I am pretty excited about. Simple, but sweet.
I was inspired by this embroidery project at A Number of Things (via Kelly at Almost Frugal-who kindly included my clothespin dolls in her list of handmade holiday gifts).
Alice embroidered the outline of her son's hand which he had traced himself. While my kids aren't really up for that yet, I thought it would be a great way for me to capture their prints. I've never done the traditional plaster prints or even painted ones.
I traced their hands on paper, cut out the shapes, then traced those onto my fabric (you can get fabric transfer paper, but for an outrageous price). Next, I embroidered them all inside a 12" hoop. I kept it simple, with just their initials and the year. I painted the hoops (I didn't have a chance to photograph the other one which is designed a bit differently) so they could be hung as is, keeping enough extra fabric behind that they could be pulled out and framed later, if need be.
My kids were excited to see their hand prints sewn into the fabric and liked the thought that next Christmas they'll be able to put their hands up next to the prints and see how they've grown.
This was my first time to embroider anything. I'm definitely going to do more of it.

Update: I've answered some of your questions about this project and given you some embroidery instruction links here.

Felt desert

I finally made our felt desert to accompany our felt jungle. The animals have been getting impatient.
You can see from the pictures, the only permanent land structures are the sausage-like sand dunes and the water. The repositionable items are the tent (I forgot that in the 2nd picture), the flowers, the various cacti, and of course the animals.
The saguaro cactus has a cardboard roll skeleton. The smaller ones are sewn like little pillows, then glued into milk or soda caps which I'd wrapped with a strip of matching felt. They're, actually, all patchwork because I ran out of green felt, but it made them more attractive, I think. The tent and the flowers are backed with cereal box cardboard.

Several of you have mentioned making these for your own kids. I'd love to see them!

Felt jungle

Hello! We have been so busy with my mom visiting that I've quite neglected my blog. I used to try to catch up on crafting while my mom was here, but that's gotten harder to do as we've had more children and found that so much more time is required to just happily survive. Here's the one project I've managed to complete this week. Felt jungle.
My mom brought the kids some toy animals (they've been loving these in everyone else's homes) and I designed a little felt habitat for them. It's very obviously not geographically accurate and certainly not made to scale, but neither are the animals. We call this one the jungle. I intend to make a desert home, as well, but we'll see how it goes.
I started with a big piece of that stiff craft felt. I shaped the perimeter and sewed some grass around it. I sewed on a pond and a snow-capped mountain. The other pieces I purposefully kept separate so the kids could rearrange the land how they'd like.
The palm trees are made from tp rolls and felt; the standing grass and little cave are stiffened with cereal box cut-outs. I stuffed the mountain, a rock, and a fish with polyester batting. Finally, we added actual rocks, and, of course, the animals.
When my daughter saw the completed jungle, she declared it "A beautiful new land!" Right out of a book we've very much enjoyed called Whale's Canoe, which colorfully depicts the forests, plains, mountains, and rivers of Australia. I was glad she liked it.

Update: See our felt desert here.

Clothespin dolls

On this rainy day, I decided to finally make some clothespin dolls for my kids. My daughter helped in choosing part of the wardrobe, but I did most of the outfit assembly and all of the cutting and gluing. I think, later, I may pre-cut some clothes and let them do all of the matching and gluing. Looks like I'll need to focus on boy clothes.
I haven't found the perfect solution for making facial features. I'm fine without them and didn't care to continue experimenting, but it'd be nice to know sometime what will mark on wood pins without bleeding.
Now, of course, comes the creating of all the furnishings that must accompany little dolls. Pull out the cardboard boxes, plastic lids, and fabric scraps. This will be fun!

Pillowcase dress and bias tape

I finally got around to making a pillowcase dress for my daughter. End of summer, but she requested it especially long and I made the armholes deeper than planned, so she should actually be able to wear this every summer for most of her life.
I will direct you to a popular tutorial that I plan to use next time I make one of these, but, really, there are so many tutorials online for these dresses-some with ribbon casing at the top like this one, some with it through the arms, some with elastic, some from non-pillowcase fabric, etc.-that it would be worth it for you to look around and find the one that you like best. I looked at several and then, when it came down to it, followed none of them exactly. Probably why my armholes ended up so large.
I did make my own bias tape for the arms. I've done this before, but this was the first time to use my Clover Bias Tape Maker. Much less tedious this way. The package comes with instructions, but like everything else, online tutorials are abundant. To start with, here's one for making the tape and one for sewing it to your garment.
If any of you purchased floral sheet sets in the late 70s or 80s, or slept on your parents', you may recognize this pillowcase. This was the last in our household that hadn't been recycled into rags or dropcloth. I added the ribbon trim around the bottom to match the ribbon at the neck.
This is a simple sewing project, but if you're like me, problems seem inevitable until you've worked through it several times. I expect it will be faster and easier next time.

Frog's new jacket

We have been enjoying the Frog and Toad stories by Arnold Lobel. Currently, we're reading from Frog and Toad Are Friends. In one story, titled A Lost Button, Toad thinks he loses a jacket button while on an outdoor walk with Frog. Frog and Toad retrace their steps, looking for the button. Toad is frustrated that they find a number of other lost buttons (black button, two-hole button, small button, square button, thin button), but not his own white, four-hole, big, round, thick button. In the end, he finds it at home. In gratitude to Frog who helped him look for his lost button, Toad sews all the found buttons onto his jacket and gives it to Frog. Frog loves it.
We love the story, so we created our own Frog's jacket. Except we don't have a frog, so it's for a rabbit. Whatever. This would be a fun little storytime/craft combo that's easily adaptable for various ages of children.
For ours, I drew something like the picture below on a piece of oilcloth. (For the real one, I measured and drew straight lines). I cut it out, folded it across the top, and stitched the sides (with a little help from eager children). My kids picked out buttons that fit the descriptions in the book (at least, whatever I had that most closely resembled them). They glued them to the jacket and when they weren't looking I sewed them on for added strength. I didn't measure any of their dolls before cutting and sewing, so I had to keep making little adjustments. You can see slight modifications when you look at our finished jacket below. Be sure to take simple measurements of your doll before you draw and cut.

Variations on this project:
Draw a jacket and have your children color it and glue on buttons.
Cut out the oilcloth jacket and punch holes down the sides. Have your child sew it closed with yarn. Glue or sew on buttons. (See photos above)

Summer Sit-upons (or place mats for your rear)

I've thought on more than one occasion how nice it would be to pull out a little waterproof mat upon which to sit in the park when it's wet or especially dirty. I should make something for myself and tell the world (my tiny world) my great idea! I mentioned this to my mom one time and she told me she made one of these "sit-upons" in Girl Scouts. In fact, there are tons of varieties of sit-upons all over the web and elsewhere in the world and I guess my brain just didn't realize that at the time (like when I thought it was my idea to make foam stick puppets then saw stick puppets on my package of craft foam). As always, it's proven to me that nothing's new under the sun. And that I appear to have a poor or selective memory.
I still decided to make some. I wanted one I could roll or fold up instead of this model. This actually proved to be more time-consuming than I had anticipated. Here's how it went. Tutorial to follow.
I started out by sitting on place mats on the kitchen floor to determine about how big I'd want my sit-upon. Then, I purchased some pretty oilcloth. I thought I wanted a little bit of padding, but nothing too thick. I decided cut-up old t-shirts would be the filling. I cut my oilcloth and t-shirts and reviewed these oilcloth sewing tips. I changed my needle, presser foot, and taped over the plate on my sewing machine. I decided, for some reason, to treat this sit-upon sort of like a quilt. I laid out one piece of fabric, then the "batting," and topped it off with the other piece of fabric. I sewed around this, "quilted" it through the middle, and pinked the borders. I was so irritated by the time I finished, I forgot to put in the ribbon for tying it up. This one turned out kind of heavy, and all warped because the fabric layers kept progressing through the machine at different rates. No good.
Next, I decided to use fused plastic bags. I've always wanted to do this for a project and thought this would be ideal. Here's the tutorial I used for fusing the bags. After fusing, I trimmed the edges of the bag pieces, pieced the resulting shapes together, sewed around them and pinked the edges. This I kind of enjoyed and, despite the final project not being as flat as I had hoped, I felt it was good enough. Then I started getting a headache and decided it is probably not wise to fuse plastic bags in our apartment. I do have 3 small children, after all.
Finally, I went ahead and sewed 2 pieces of oilcloth front-to-front and pulled it right side out. For the first one (using the method) I slid in a piece of craft foam I've had lying around for YEARS . Actually, I had to use two pieces so I sewed them together which I thought was very cool and will most likely incorporate into a future project. The second one I filled with plastic bags. The non-fused kind. These both worked, but I like the way the one lined with plastic bags rolls up. The craft foam is a little stiffer and is harder to roll. They both fold into thirds well. Here's the tutorial.

For one sit-upon:
Determine the size mat you'd like to sit upon. Mine ended up about 14"x18".
Cut out two pieces of oilcloth one inch larger on both sides-15"x19" (Or cut out a larger piece that equals those dimensions when folded in half).
Place your two pieces together, right side facing right side-backsides up.
Choose one narrow end to leave open for stuffing.
I started zig-zag stitching (with my walking foot, but probably a regular presser foot would do) about 3 inches in from the corner of the side I was leaving a hole in. Backstitch and sew toward the corner, around the rectangle and end about 3 inches in from the corner opposite the one you started with. Backstitch. This should leave a good-sized opening for your stuffing.
Trim corners and any excessive seams, if you like, then turn right side out. Push out corners carefully so as not to puncture the oilcloth.

For craft foam stuffing:
Cut a large piece of foam to fit inside your mat. Or butt together smaller pieces and stitch. Slide through the opening and make sure it's flat.
For plastic bag stuffing:
Get out a bunch of plastic grocery bags.
Lay them out one at a time on top of each other and cut across to remove the bottom seam, then cut across the top to remove the handles.
Flatten out the bags. (They'll be wider since the bottom seam is gone and the sides are no longer folded in). If you like that thickness, continue; if you want it thicker, then cut more bags.
I sewed a straight stitch right down the center of my stack of bags to hold them together.
Straighten up and trim the edges, making sure your finished size is just inside the total width and height of your sewn fabric rectangle. See photo below.

To finish:
Cut a length of coordinating ribbon (Mine was almost 40" long).
Stitch ends flat together forming a loop (or raindrop, really).
Glue the flat, stitched end of your ribbon about 2 inches down, inside your mat opening, halfway between the corners (Or do this like I did at the last minute, right before you stitch the opening closed. That way you don't have to worry about the ribbon shifting while the glue dries and you sew around).
Change to a wide straight stitch on your sewing machine.
Start stitching at about the same place you started when your mat was inside out, about 1/4" in from the edge. (Make sure the folded-in fabric at your opening has been finger-pressed down evenly). Backstitch then sew toward the corner and around the rectangle to the corner opposite your opening.
This is when I glued my ribbon in place.
Then stitch across the hole to the place where you started. Backstitch.
Now you can roll or fold up your mat from the opposite end of the ribbon. Loop your ribbon around and determine where you'd like to cut it. I left one ribbon longer for reaching around the mat. Cut and Fray-Check the edges.
Roll up your mat and go sit in the dirt!

My set fits nicely together folded in thirds like this (above). They slide into the back pocket of our diaper bag or into the picnic basket or stroller basket, whatever. My kids carried them to the playground with us this morning to use while we ate snacks on the grass. Then they went and rolled in the sand. Oh well.
Bonus: You could also use these as diaper changing pads and place mats. But probably not in the same outing. At least not in that order.
Happy sitting!

Traveling felt boards

Hello from Texas! The first leg of our trip is over. We have visited family in various parts of Texas and now my husband has returned to lone it in Chicago while the kids and I enjoy an extended visit down here in the DFW area. I do have access to a computer now and plan to update the blog when I can. Starting with one of our successful last-minute airplane activities.
The night before our trip I realized I hadn't put any thought into what travel activities I'd be packing for the kids. Oops. So, I pulled out my trusty Preschooler's Busy Book (book of choice for this season of our lives). I found a suggestion for a boxed felt board and adapted it to suit our circumstances. Instead of lining a box lid with felt and storing cut pieces within, I lined two sturdy cracker box sides with felt, adhered the cut pieces to the board and stuck it in a gallon-sized ziploc. Perfect for plane travel! This was prepared late the night before we left, so I didn't put a lot of thought into it, but it turned out to be a satistfying activity for my 4-year old. I plan to make a couple more for the return trip with different themes or generic geometric shapes.

Yarn ball

I was reminded of this activity by The Crafty Crow yesterday and thought it looked like fun to try with my kids. Hmm. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped. First of all, the yarn wouldn't really stick to the balloon so it was frustrating for the kids. They would drape the strings on, then the strings would fall right off. I increased the amount of glue and tried to really soak the yarn. The kids just couldn't get into it and quickly quit, but I stuck with it and did eventually get the ball covered. I dumped some of the remaining glue solution over the ball when I was finished for good measure. I let it dry overnight. Some of the strings felt pretty stiff (where I strung the line through to hang it), but most of them still felt pretty yarn-like, soft, and shapeless (the photo is a little deceiving). I'm not sure what I could have done to make this work better. More soaking?

Shirt shorts

So I did squeeze in a little craft time last night.
I'm excited about making the kids some clothes for summer and got a head start last night with these shirt-shorts. That's a shirt I got in high school (the old baggy boy's shirt days) and I cut it into a pair of shorts for my son. I think they turned out pretty well considering the number of mistakes I make when working on a new project.
I found tutorials for this at Sew, Mama, Sew! and in Amanda Soule's book The Creative Family.

P.S. If you notice my son's shirt, you'll see my daughter's face drawing that we iron-transferred onto t-shirts for Christmas. This picture below makes the shorts look a bit scrunchy in the crotch for some reason and there's a sticker behind him that looks like it's stuck on him, but you may be able to see the face a little better.

P.P.S. Cassi has featured our play-doh cookies on The Crafty Crow today (previous features here and here) so I've gone back and updated my old post with a few tips and photos.

Cardboard-Button-Felt Flowers

I've been meaning to make something with a cut-up paper towel roll since I saw this tealight decoration by Patricia of A Little Hut. I had my chance on Saturday morning while the kids were finishing breakfast, so I grabbed an empty roll from the recycle bin, the scissors and glue and started working while continuing to carry on a conversation with my kids' spoons (if you have small children, you have to know what I'm talking about). These button flowers were also fresh in my mind (you can find variations on these just about everywhere), so I married the two projects and created these flowers. Really fun!
After making them, I got totally carried away photographing them. As you can see. But, as usual, I did not take pictures while in the middle of the project, thus making it impossible for me to share one of those great step-by-step tutorials. I will share a pictureless description of how I made these flowers:
I painted part of my paper towel roll red with acrylic paint and a little sponge. It worked well and dried quickly.
I cut the roll into 1/2" rings (approximately).
I glued the bottom sides of 5 rings together. (Fabri-Tac dries pretty quickly).
I threaded a couple buttons through the end of a pipe cleaner and twisted it right underneath the buttons. You could also thread them through to the middle of the stem, but I didn't want the stem too thick for threading on the blossom and leaves.
With craft felt, I cut leaves and colorful little embellishments to sit right under the buttons and over the leaves.
I cut a little-bitty slit in the base of my felt pieces in order to slide them up the pipe cleaner without having to glue them in place.
I slid the blossom on through the little hole in it's center, then added the leaves.
Finally, I slid up a little matching bead to hold the leaves in place (see photo below).

By the way, after I made these, I got my Kids Craft Weekly newsletter, which happens to feature flower crafts. I especially like the patty pan flowers. I have never seen brightly colored baking cups around here, but I'll have to keep my eyes open. I'm not too into those boring pastel ones.
I plan on coming up with some other little projects with the paper towel roll, too. I'll be sure to post about them when I get around to it.
Happy spring!