Crafty Saturday Fun: Make a Yarn Bouquet!

Most of my DIY ideas come from the necessities in my own life.  Today's project is no exception.  I have several special birthdays coming up and also have a ridiculous amount of old yarn skeins from past projects (when I thought I was going to be a serious crocheter and turned out it was too hot in Florida to wear anything I made).  So what could I make as a birthday gift that involved yarn?... super cute Yarn Flower Bouquet that's what!

This project was so simple and fast, it seems silly to lay out the steps but for the sake of clarity, here is what I did.  (I do want to apologize for the inconsistency in photo quality, I was having some serious issues with clouds coming and going and constantly changing my light source, but you'll get the idea).

Step 1: Go on a stick hunting adventure in your backyard or local park. (this was my son's favorite part, except he kept finding borderline logs instead of sticks and insisted on lugging them back with us as well.  So you are prewarned, you may need a wagon for this adventure if you are bringing a small friend.)

Step 2: Pick out some fun yarn colors from your stash.

Step 3: Break your sticks down to the sizes you want for the flower stems and wrap with yarn. (you may need to clean them off a bit before you do this).  The wrap technique is simple, tie an overhand knot at the end and start wrapping tightly up, covering the knot tail as you go.  When you get to the top, just tie another overhand knot and cut the yarn.  It doesnt matter if you see a little bit of the stick since it will be covered with the flower.

Step 4: Make Pom-Poms for your flowers.  You can either use the old fashion method of cutting cardboard donuts or use a pom-pom maker, like I did (Previous DIY on how to do this HERE).

Step 5: Grab your trusty Hot glue gun and put a glob of glue on the end that you want the flower to sit, separate the yarn ends with your finger to make a spot for the stick to go as close to the center as possible, and then press the flower on.  At this point, I also added some fun ribbon ties to create a leaf look (felt leaves would also be cute)

Step 6: Arrange however you please.  I had a little glass vase on hand which I filled with scrap yarn and arranged my bouquet in, but they could also be tied together with a cute ribbon for the birthday girl to put in her own style of vase.

There you have it, a simple cheap way to give a gift from the heart that will last so much longer than real flowers.  Plus it's a wonderful way to decorate your home with bright cheeriness when the cold winter months come around.

Dont they make you want to create a whole garden of yarn-tastic flowers!  I kind of want to yarn-bomb people's yards with them, mostly because I love the whole concept of yarn bombing and for some reason the pairing of brightly colored fiber art against the natural world makes me really really happy.   If you have no idea what I am talking about, click HERE for some fun.  

*FYI: I have a few more of the hand painted vintage art journals almost ready and will be listing them later today, if you missed out on the one that sold yesterday.  Dont forget, everything is Free Shipping through Monday in my Etsy Shop.   Have a happy and crafty Saturday!

XO, HARMONY