flowers

Tulip Gift Card Envelope – Mother’s Day or Any Day

May 5, 2019 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo Leave a Comment

Do you have a mom who is hard to shop for or lives too far away to spend a special day with her? My mom is a little of both, living over 1200 miles away and she has the things she wants. But, my mom is also a crafter! I am sure I got my crafting gene from her. I bought her a gift card for Mother’s Day so she can buy some craft supplies. During my 24 Days of Christmas Crafting, I made some gift card envelopes and decided to try another gift card envelope for this Mother’s Day gift card, this time inspired by tulips.

Tulips are the inspiration for this tuplip gift card envelope

Make a floral shaped tulip gift card envelope as a beautiful way to dress up a gift

Materials and Supplies for the Tulip Gift Card Envelope

(This post contains affiliate links to one or more of the items I used in this project – which means, if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission. There is no added cost to you!)

Medium to heavy card stock in 2-3 colors – For my flower, I used yellow for the inner petals and red for the outer petals. The green card stock represents the leaves. You could use the same color for the inner and outer flower petals or two shades of the same color.
Tacky Glue – I prefer to use Aleen’s Tacky Glue for assembling my card stock projects. It only takes a few seconds for the glue to take hold and makes my card stock projects go faster.
Design from my Resource Library – Includes .SVG and .DXF for machine cutting and a .PDF for hand-cutting.
A craft machine, such as the Cricut, for cutting the pieces or, you can cut the pieces by hand with Scissors or an X-Acto knife

Materials and supplies to make a tulip gift card envelope

Cutting the Pieces By Hand

The design for this tulip gift card envelope is very simple, which means you can cut one or more by hand pretty quickly. Since they fit onto 8-1/2″ x 11″ card stock, you can print the design from the PDF in my resource library then cut with scissors or an X-Acto knife. The design also shows the score lines as dashed lines. When you print on card stock, it is usually best to use the manual feed on your printer, especially if your printer feeds paper in such a way as to curl paper or cannot grasp card stock from the paper tray.

Cutting the Pieces by Machine

To cut the envelope with your Cricut, upload the .SVG file to Design Space and change the score lines from cut to score as shown below. If the groupings are not the way you want them, change them in Design Space. Remember to select the score layers and cut layers for the pieces that go together and “attach” them so the scores are made relative to the cuts.

Upload the tulip gift card envelope file to Cricut Design Space

If your machine does not have a scoring tool, hide these layers and score them after you cut the pieces.

Start with all your pieces of card stock cut and the fold lines scored

Assembling the Tulip Gift Card Envelope Pieces

To assemble the pieces of the tulip gift card envelope, I will start from the inside and work toward the outside. But you can do these in any order.

Inner Petals Envelope

The inner-most piece of this gift card envelope represents a petal on the front and back of the flower. Plus, it can be a quick and easy project by itself. It will hold a gift card or credit card.

Fold along all three score lines.

Apply glue to both of the side tabs.

Apply glue to the folded tabs on either side

Fold the two halves together and hold for a few seconds as the glue begins to set.

You could make several of these as card protectors or quick-and-easy gift card envelopes. It would be a great way to use up your card stock scraps, especially the pretty printed card stock. Tuck these into greeting cards or into other gifts.

Outer Petals Sections

For these outer petals of the tulip gift card envelope, each side of the petals as two vertical score lines. This is to give these petals some depth so the inner petals (the yellow “envelope” from the steps above) will fit easily. The score lines are very close together. Do your best to fold along both score lines on each section.

On one of these outer petals is a bottom tab with two score lines. Fold both of these to support the depth of these petals.

Add glue to the bottom tab, fold, then hold until the glue begins to set.

Add glue to the bottom tab on the one set of outer petals

Outer Leaves Section

This green piece represents some leaves for this tulip gift card envelope. It, too, has depth. The depth of this leaf section is a little deeper than the red outer petals.

Fold along both score lines on each side (between the leaves and the tabs) and the score line that separates the two halves.

Apply glue to the tabs, fold the two halves together then hold as the glue begins to set.

Add glue to the side walls of the leaves piece

It is easier to see the dimension for this section. The leaf-section is a little like a box that the petals-section slides into.

Putting the Tulip Gift Card Envelope Together

Start with the outer petals. Slide the side that does not have the glued bottom-tab into the side that has the glued bottom-tab.

Slide the inner petals section, the envelope piece, into the outer petals.

Slide the inner envelope petals into the outer petals

After the inner petals section is seated into the bottom of the outer petals, slide the outer petals together.

Continue until the outer petals encase the inner petals section.

Take the petals sections and slide it into the outer leaves piece.

Slide it all the way to the bottom of the leaves section.

Your tulip gift card envelope is complete and just needs a gift card before sharing with your special someone.

The tulip gift card envelope is now complete

You can get the patterns to this and all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

Remember to pin this to your favorite DIY, holiday, and/or crafting board on Pinterest!

Make a floral shaped tulip gift card envelope as a beautiful way to dress up a gift for Mother's Day or any holiday

Make a Loopy Burlap Flowers Wreath

January 18, 2019 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 4 Comments

Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? You can get started now and make this Loopy Burlap Flowers Wreath for your Valentine’s Day decorating!

Your Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath is now ready to hang on your door

Materials and Supplies

(This post contains affiliate links to some of the items I used in this project. It just means that you will help to support my blog if you make a purchase after clicking the links. There is no added cost to you!)

Grapevine Wreath – 15″ to 18″
1 roll of 5″ x 15′ red burlap (This will make 10 flowers) — If you did not pick these up in the after-Christmas sales, you can always buy them on Amazon
Tacky Glue — for making the loopy burlap flowers
Hot Glue — for attaching things to the wreath
Red and/or White embellishments – I found red and white beads/berries on stems after Christmas. When looking in the craft stores today, I saw all sorts of red and white items that would look quite lovely in a Valentine’s wreath. I almost bought white feathers! Pick something you would enjoy.
“Love” sign
- You can cut your own from chipboard if you have the Cricut Maker or a fine saw. The pattern is in my Resource Library. I cut mine on my Cricut Maker from 2mm chipboard.
- You can buy these pre-made around Valentine’s Day made from wood such as:
White craft acrylic paint & a paintbrush
Optional: Ribbon or lace

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Materials

The “Love” Sign

I already had the chipboard on hand from a chipboard project I made for Christmas so I opened up my drawing program and created the word Love as an SVG file. I widened the letters in their thin spots and pushed the letters together to give the whole word a little more strength, then converted it to a single object to cut on the Cricut Maker.

The font I used is called Dulcelin and is the same font that I use in my logo.

I am happy with the result. The Cricut Maker cut the Cricuit brand 2mm chipboard without creating any debris.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Cute the LOVE letters from chipboard on the Cricut Maker

Finding a pre-made sign in your local craft store at this time of year would be fast and easy — assuming the local crafters have not snatched them all up by now. And, of course, there is always shopping online for such signs.

Making the Loopy Burlap Flowers

The flowers in this project are larger than the flowers I have made in previous projects. Because I used the roll of burlap, I made them the width of that roll. The roll is 5-inches wide and 15-feet in length. This makes 10 flowers from 5″x18″ rectangles of burlap.

As you work with the burlap on a roll, you will notice that the edge of the burlap is serged, which means you can work a little closer to the edge (as you will see in my video below). Working closer to the edge allows the flowers to lie closer to the wreath instead of having the bulky base.

I have made loopy burlap flowers for a few projects on my blog. You can go back and read through those posts to learn more about how to make them…

…or watch this short video to get a quick refresher on how to make the flowers.

Note: The flowers for this project are larger than the ones I have made for previous posts. Pulling the first couple of strands of fiber out of the cloth takes a little more effort but it is just as easy after that.

Assembling the Valentine’s Wreath

The first thing I positioned was the word “Love” that I had cut on the Cricut and painted with white craft acrylic paint. I used hot glue at each end of the word and in the middle to hold it in place. The chipboard is very lightweight so it didn’t need much to keep it secured to the wreath.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - First attach the LOVE letters

How you assemble the flowers onto the wreath is up to you and your personal style. I tried evenly spacing them around the wreath and I tried grouping the flowers together and preferred them grouped together.

Try a few arrangements using just a dab of hot glue to hold the flowers in place until you find an arrangement that suits you.

Tip for rearranging the flowers: If you don’t like where you positioned a flower, hold the flower securely by its base and twist to remove it from the wreath. It will come off easier if you twist it than if you try to pull straight off the wreath.

When you have the flowers laid out the way you like, use more hot glue to hold the flowers in place.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Add the flowers to the wreath

If you have something to add to the center of the flowers, you can glue those in place at any time. I used some of the white “berries” as the centers of my flowers.

Add a Bow to Your Wreath

After all but two of the loopy burlap flowers were in place, I made a big bow. To make the bow, I started with 4 strips of 24″ ribbon. The ribbon I used is wired ribbon that is 3″ wide.

Step 1: Make the Loops

Take each of those 24-inch strips and glue the ends to each other to make four loops.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Create the bow loops

Making sure the overlapped/glued edge is in the center, flatten each loop and stack them into a pile.

Cut a shorter piece of ribbon that is four to six inches in length and remove the wires.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Remove the wires from the ribbon that will become the center of the bow

Fold this lengthwise into a tube and secure the overlap with glue. This will be the center piece that ties the loops together.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Make the center for the bow by making a tube

Step 2: Gather the Loops

Take the stack of flattened loops and pinch them in the middle. Wrap that tube-shaped piece around the middle of the pinch and glue it in the back. You may have leftover ribbon from that wrap piece. You can cut off and discard the extra.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Pinch the loops and wrap the center around the pinch

Step 3: Poof!

When the glue has hardened, turn the bow over and start fanning out the loops so they are no longer stacked on top of each other then un-flatten them. Poof them out.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Separate the loops of the bow and poof them out

Step 4: Ribbon Streamers

Cut two more pieces of ribbon around 15 inches in length each. Clip one end of each to give it a fan-tail. At the opposite end of each, gather up in a pinch and secure to the back of the bow with some hot glue.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Clip the ends of the ties and glue to the back of the bow

Your bow for the Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath is ready to attach

Step 5: Attach the Bow

Glue the bow to the wreath and use the last two loopy burlap flowers to fill in where they look best to you. I tucked my last two flowers up against the bow.

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath - Hot glue the bow to the wreath and add the extra flowers

I then took my red and white berry embellishments and tucked those into the wreath around the flowers and the bow. They fit into the grapevine quite snugly so I did not need to glue those in place.

Now the wreath is ready to decorate your home for Valentine’s Day!

Loopy Burlap Flower Valentines Wreath is now complete

You can get my 5-page set of tips for working with burlap plus get the pattern for this and all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

Remember to pin this to your favorite crafting board on Pinterest!

Make these adorable loopy burlap flowers then attach them to a wreath to decorate for Valentine's Day| #diy #burlap #burlap_flowers #loop_burlap_flowers #loopy_burlap_flowers #valentines #wreath

Holiday Burlap Loop Flowers Centerpiece

December 19, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 3 Comments

Day 19 of the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

The goal for these 24 days is to give you ideas for hand-crafted Christmas decorations for your tree and home. Come back each day to try the next craft. 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

These loopy burlap flowers, dyed in red and green, make a charming holiday centerpiece for your Christmas decorating

These loopy burlap flowers are very easy to make. I remember making them when I was a kid with my mom. For this project, I made the flowers in red and green then assembled them into a Christmas centerpiece lit with LEDs.

Materials and Supplies

Burlap 1 yard
Red dye – Rit Dye “scarlet”
Green dye – Rit Dye “dark green”
Styrofoam Dome – 6″
Florist Wire
Flower Centers – I used these shiny Beaded Christmas Berries that I also used in my mistletoe project
LED Strand
Lace – Amount will vary depending on the type of lace and the density that you use. Assume you will need a handful of yards.
Flat headed straight pins
Tacky Glue
Optional: Clips for holding things together as the glue sets

Materials for making the loopy burlap flowers

About the Burlap

The burlap I bought for this project is a pre-packaged 1-yard bundle and it has gold foil thread included in the weave, though I suspect this version with the gold thread is a holiday offering. I like this burlap because of the finer weave than the burlap I can find on the bolt in the local fabric store. Depending on what is available to you in your stores, you may or may not find this specific item. If you like the shiny burlap but can’t find it, you can always use a spray-on glitter after you make the flowers.

Dying the Burlap

I have never found burlap in the local fabric and craft stores in the rich colors I wish it would have. This meant I had to dye it myself for this loopy burlap flowers centerpiece project. Thankfully, burlap takes dyes very well.

My Test Dyes

I did some test dyes first. I cut three swatches. I put one in the red dye, one in the green dye, and one in bleach water. After bleaching one swatch, I cut it in half and added to the colored dye baths.

Bleaching first and then dying produced a color that wasn’t as deep and rich as dying the unbleached burlap. Thankfully, one step you won’t have to do. 🙂

Dying the Burlap

Cutting the yard of burlap into two pieces, I dyed the burlap in plastic tubs placed in a bathtub. I filled each tub about a quarter full with hot tap water and added the full bottle of dye. I then just let it set until I had time to get back to it. It was ready after about half an hour, though I didn’t get back to it for another hour or so.

Rinse the burlap until it you have most of the dye out. Since this project will never need to be laundered, I wasn’t so worried about getting the rinse water to run completely clear. Lay the rinsed burlap pieces across the empty tubs and allow to air dry. Do not put into your dryer. You do not want the fibers to shrink or cause the fibers to twist against themselves. This will make it too difficult to remove the fibers later.

After the burlap has completely dried, lay an old towel or rag on your ironing board and press the burlap flat. The old towel is just in case you didn’t get enough of the dye out. I used the hottest setting and heaviest steam to get the burlap flat again.

After dying and air drying, press with a hot steamy iron

Cutting the Burlap

If you have burlap that has the gold in it, notice that the gold is only in the fibers that run in one direction. You need to be sure to cut the burlap pieces so that you are pulling out the fibers that do NOT have the gold. The long fibers that run along the 10″ length are the ones you want to remove, leaving the shiny fibers in place.

Cut the burlap into 3-3/4″ x 10″ pieces.

For this project you will need:

9 red
11 green

Once they are cut, you’re ready to start making the flowers.

Making the Loopy Burlap Flowers

In my first post about loopy burlap flowers, I walk through the individual steps. You can go back and read those steps or you can watch this sped-up video I made.

Assembling the Centerpiece

Set the styrofoam dome in front of you. Place eight (8) of the green flowers equally around the dome by inserting the florist wire into the foam approximately an inch up from the bottom of the dome. You may need to trim the wire.

Add a row of eight (8) red flowers above the green flowers. Off-shift this row so that the red flowers are over the spaces between the green flowers.

Assemble by inserting the loopy burlap flowers into the foam dome

Start weaving the lace around the loopy burlap flowers. To give it the gathered look, pinch a gather into the lace then pin it into the foam. Use as much lace as you want to fill the gaps between the flowers.

Add lace between the flowers and pin in place

Options instead of lace: If you have leftover greenery from another project, you could pin those leaves into the foam. Another option would be white or gold ribbons that you have tied into bows.

When you have filled in these two rows of flowers with the lace, add a third row using the last three green flowers then the last red flower at the top of the dome. Fill in with more lace.

Light up the Centerpiece with LEDs

You can be done here but I wanted to add some of the LEDs that I used in my paper stars garland.

Make “staples” from florist wire and use those staples to hold the LED wire in the centerpiece.

Make staples for attaching the LEDs by folding florist wire

Use one of these staples between every couple of LED bulbs and press into the foam so that the LED is just inside the fabric of the centerpiece.

Completed loopy burlap flower holiday centerpiece

The Loopy Burlap Centerpiece is Complete

You can now use your new centerpiece to brighten your holiday decor.

Come back each day for a new project in the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

You can get my 5-page set of tips for working with burlap plus get the patterns to all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

Remember to pin this to your favorite holiday crafting board on Pinterest!

These loopy burlap flowers, dyed in red and green, make a charming holiday centerpiece for your Christmas decorating| #diy #christmas #burlap #flowers #loop #loopy #decor

Burlap Calla Lilies are Easy to Make

April 8, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 3 Comments

With the arrival of spring and seeing the spring flowers starting to poke through the ground, I wanted to make a bouquet of something to put in my office. I love the bouquets of calla lilies that are made for brides. That is my inspiration for this bouquet of burlap calla lilies. It turned out to be so easy to make these that I made enough for a whole bouquet.

One of the nice things about this project is that you can adapt some of the materials and supplies to whatever you have on hand or whatever suits you. Read through what I did then decide how you want to make them for yourself.

Materials and Supplies for the Burlap Calla Lilies

Fine-weave white/ivory burlap — I tried using coarse-weave burlap and they did not look as nice as I wanted. I also tried with laminated burlap and a combed cotton cross stitch cloth. I’ll show you pictures of all these at the end.
Skewers or thin dowel (bamboo skewers are less expensive)
Florist Tape
Turmeric (for dying the stamens)
Burlap fibers — I used the ones I pulled out and saved from the burlap flowers post. I’ll talk about other options later in this post.
Hot glue gun (low temp will work) — You can also use a regular glue but it will take longer for you to make these flowers
Scissors
Pattern for the flower shape — The pattern is available in my Resource Library
Spray-On Fabric Stiffener — I used Aleen’s Stiffen-Quick

Step 1 – Dye the Burlap Fibers for the Stamens

Turmeric is a spice I always keep in my kitchen because of its anti-inflammatory properties, which helps reduce my arthritis pain. It also makes a beautiful yellow dye. If you do not have Turmeric in your spice cabinet, you will find it at any grocery store and it is not an expensive spice.

Measure out two teaspoons of Turmeric into a glass or ceramic microwave-safe container. Do not use a plastic container. It can stain your plastic. It will also stain your clothes. Pour in a cup of water and stir. The Turmeric does not dissolve into the water.

Pre-wet your bundle of fibers in water then squeeze out as much of the water as you can.

Stir your Turmeric and water mixture then lay your fibers into the Turmeric water. Be sure the fibers are completely covered by the Turmeric water. Use a spoon to push the fibers down into the yellow water to get them completely soaked.

You may need to add more water if you have a lot of fiber. I used enough fiber to make a dozen burlap calla lilies. Let the fibers sit in the Turmeric water for five minutes. Because the Turmeric does not dissolve into water, the spice will settle to the bottom. Gently shake the container or stir the fibers. Place the container into the microwave and heat for one minute. Give the container a shake (or stir) and microwave for another minute. Repeat the shake or stir and microwave for a final third minute. Set aside to cool for five to 10 minutes, until it is cool enough for you to handle.

Pour out the Turmeric water and rinse the fibers until the water runs clear.

Allow the fibers to dry completely. If you are eager to get started, you can squeeze out all the water, separate the fibers and iron them between layers of paper towel.

Step 2 – Cutting the Burlap

Print and cut the pattern from my Resource Library.

Trace the pattern onto the burlap. Burlap can be a bit shifty as you try to draw on it. I use a felt-tip pen vs. a ball point pen.

Cut the burlap just inside the traced line (so you don’t have any ink on your finished flowers).

Step 3 – Making the Stamens

I’m using the burlap fibers that I pulled out and saved from the burlap flowers post.

You can make the stamens however you want and with whatever goes best with your decor. I am using the ivory colored burlap fibers from the other burlap flower project and dyed them yellow using Turmeric. I tried a few stamens for the calla lilies with the natural colored burlap but I prefer the yellow stamens.

Below are some alternate options for the stamens:

Yarn
Twine or string
Pipe cleaners
Dyed cotton swabs

The fibers are 10 inches long. Pull out one strand of fiber and make a slip knot close to the end. Set it aside.

Lay out six of the fibers and align the ends. Fold the bundle in half then in half again.

Place the slip knot over one end of the folded bundle, close to the end, and tighten the slip knot.

Wrap the bundle with the long end of the slip knot strand. You do not need to have the wraps close to each other. You want to wrap about 1 to 1-1/2 inches of the folded bundle. Secure the end with a small dot of hot glue.

With your scissors, trim the opposite end close to the slip knot. You can secure the slip knot with a small dot of glue if you are concerned about any unwinding.

Note about the “skewers” — I used 10-inch bamboo skewers because that is what I had on hand. Real calla lilies have pretty thick stems. You could use dowels or chopsticks to achieve a thicker stem. It will mostly depend on what you plan to do with the flowers after you make them. If they need to stand on their own or if you plan to use them in a bridal bouquet, you may want to use something thicker than the skewers.

Place a small dot of glue on the pointed end of a skewer.

Insert it into the fringe end of the stamen.

Step 4 – Making the Burlap Calla Lily Flower

Lay the stamen and stem along one side of the burlap petal at the base of the petal and secure the stamen to the petal with hot glue.

Roll the stamen across the petal, wrapping the burlap around the stamen.

Secure again with hot glue.

The flower is now ready for the florist tape.

Step 5 – Wrap the Stem

Using florist tape, start wrapping close to the base of the calla lily. Florist tape sticks to itself and sticks best if you give it a slight stretch as you wrap.

Wrap at an angle and continue down to the bottom of the skewer.

Step 6 – Shaping the Calla Lily

In my first experiment with making the burlap Calla Lilies, I used hair spray as a fabric stiffener. That was okay for an experiment but not really a good idea for a final project. Hair spray is flammable. Use a spray-on fabric stiffener for crafts.

Spritz the flower with the fabric stiffener.

Curl back the sides a little and roll back the tip.

You can also add a little twist to the tip.

You can trim off any loose ends or pen marks.

Looking into the flower, you can see the spiral that real calla lilies have.

Step 7 – The Burlap Calla Lilies Bouquet

Repeat the above steps for as many flowers as you want in your bouquet.

Video Tutorial

I created a video making one of the burlap calla lilies. You may find it helpful to watch how I did some of the things I described above.

My Experiments with Other Types of Cloth

I told you earlier that I tried these flowers with some other fibers. I used all the same steps and techniques described above. Below are my comments about the other three fabrics I tried followed by a picture of all three next to the ones I made in this tutorial.

Coarse-Weave Ivory Burlap

Because of the coarse weave, these were not as tidy looking. They seemed too messy to me after I started shaping them. The coarse weave allowed them to unravel a bit.

Laminated Burlap

The laminated burlap does not ravel and has a finer weave but did not want to hold the shape I gave it. It also has that lamination layer that I did not care for. I wanted the burlap look to be visible on both sides.

Combed Cotton Cross-Stitch/Embroidery Fabric

Finding fine weave ivory burlap is hit-or-miss for my local craft stores. I found it one day I was in the stores but not there another day. That’s what made me decide to try some other fabrics that would be more consistently available. I actually like the look of the flowers with this fabric. They are whiter and the cloth is finer. Some people will like this look much better. Others will really want the more rustic look of the burlap. It’s totally up to you and the look you want for your flowers.

I hope this inspires your to make some spring flowers to brighten your home.

I would love to see your burlap calla lilies when you make them! You can post pictures of your calla lilies in my Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TracyLynnCrafts

You can get my 5-page set of tips for working with burlap plus get the pattern to this and all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

You can pin these instructions in Pinterest so you have the link handy when you’re ready to make your own burlap calla lilies bouquet.

Easy Ombre Burlap Flowers to Decorate Your Home

February 4, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 4 Comments

After my post on how to make burlap flowers, I tried to think of something new for more colorful flowers. Ombre is very popular and a beautiful look so I decided to try to make ombre burlap flowers. It turned out to be very easy so I am sharing what I learned with you!

I also have a tip sheet about working with burlap is my Resource Library that you can get.

Materials and Tools to make DIY Ombre Burlap Flowers

Dye
Protective Gloves
Small cup
Work Surface
Burlap Flowers

Details about the Materials and Tools

Dye: For my dye, I went to my stash to see what I had on hand. I choose Evening Blue RIT dye. Whatever brand you use, read the instructions.
Protective Gloves: I keep latex gloves on hand for messy projects
Small cup: Use a cup that will fit a single burlap flower. I use glass when working with dye so I can get them completely clean after the project.
Work Surface: I worry that some day I will spill a dye project so I work on a surface that has “walls” to contain a spill. In this case, it’s a jelly-roll pan lined with parchment paper
Burlap Flowers: You can learn how easy it is to make these in my DIY Burlap Flowers post.

I started by making a few new flowers but without stems. The stems can easily be added later. Because I wasn’t sure how the burlap would take dye, I made three of the white flowers from burlap that I washed first, just a light rinse and squeeze to help remove sizing, then let dry before making into flowers.

Use your dye at full strength. For the RIT dye, the instructions are to mix the dry packet with two (2) cups of hot water. I did not dilute it further. I poured the dye into small cups that were just the right size for a single flower. Pour enough of the dye into the cup so that it just touches the bottom of the petals.

Wearing the protective gloves, grab one of the burlap flowers by some of the petals and lower it into the dye. You will need to hold the flower in the dye bath for a few seconds as the burlap begins to absorb the liquid. If you just set it in the dye, there will be too much air in the burlap and the flower will float and tip over.

In less than a minute, you will see the capillary action taking place as the burlap fiber pulls the liquid up into the petals.

Leave the flowers in the dye for about 15 to 20 minutes. I tried leaving them in longer and did not get any more capillary action.

The “natural” color burlap did not take the dye up into the petals. It did a great job of accepting the dye but no capillary action. I may have to try pre-washing some with a detergent to see if that helps.

With my second natural color burlap flower, I dipped the tips of the petals into the dye for just a few seconds. This one is not an ombre burlap flower but I really like how it looks!

The picture above is the final result of my test flowers. I think my attempt at Ombre Burlap Flowers was mostly a success. The burlap that I pre-rinsed was the best at getting the ombre effect.

The next step for these flowers will be to add stems and centers then add them to my bouquet.

You can get my 5-page set of tips for working with burlap plus get the patterns to all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

For the holidays, I dyed burlap in red and green and made them into a centerpiece lit with LEDs,

If you want to remember how to make your own ombre burlap flowers and share the idea with your friends, Pin this DIY Ombre Burlap Flowers to your favorite Pinterest Board.

DIY Burlap Flowers Are Easy to Make

January 28, 2018 by Tracy Lynn DeGarmo 29 Comments

I recently remembered making burlap flowers with my mom when I was in my early teens and decided I wanted to try to make them again. The burlap flowers were easy enough for us as kids to make and our mom was good at teaching us DIY projects and crafts. As a trip down memory lane, I set out to reproduce the DIY burlap flowers that I remembered. I also put together five pages of tips for working with burlap. You can find the tips in my Resource Library.

Materials and Tools to make DIY Burlap Flowers

Burlap cloth – You can often find burlap in fabric stores or online
Florist stems
Florist tape
Tacky glue
Buttons
Scissors
Pliers
Tweezers
Freezer paper

How to Make Your Own Beautiful DIY Burlap Flowers

Step 1 – Cut the Burlap

When cutting burlap, you need to cut between the fibers… cut in the weave. This prevents most of the fraying.

Cut a piece that is about 4″ x 10″ (about 10cm x 25cm).

Step 2 – Remove the Center Burlap Fibers

Lay the piece out and, starting in the middle of the short side, pull out one of the threads. I prefer to use tweezers to grab the end of the fiber.

I make sure I lay my hand on most of the burlap piece to hold it still while I pull out the fiber.

The fiber will slide out fairly easily.

I have a very short video to show you how easily these pull out.

The result is that you will have a whole “row” of burlap fiber that is now gone from your burlap cloth. Time to pull out some more! Oh, and if you end up losing the end fiber while you are pulling these out, don’t worry. Having one or two of these fall off is not a big deal.

Continue until you have about half an inch (a little over 1cm) remaining on each long edge. I keep all those leftover pieces of burlap. They make interesting tassels or ties for other projects.

Step 3 – Glue

Because burlap is a very open-weave cloth, working with glue will seep through those openings in the burlap. I have found using freezer paper (shiny side up) under my messy glue projects works to protect my project surface and my project is less likely to stick to the shiny side of the freezer paper.

Lay down a bead of Tacky glue along one edge.

Fold the other edge over to the glue edge and press with your fingers as the glue takes hold.

You will only need to hold it for about a minute.

Step 4 – Roll onto Stem

I found a few types of florist stems at the craft store and bought more than one type. For my first flower, I used a raffia-wrapped florist stem that is 18 gauge. I liked it because it was close in color to the natural color of burlap.

Lay the stem down perpendicular to the glued edge and begin rolling the glued edge onto the end of the florist stem.

Continue rolling…

And more rolling…

When you get to the end, simply hold it for a few seconds as the glue begins to set.

Step 5 – Flower Center

User your fingers to open up the flower by pulling back on the burlap loops.

When I was a kid making these flowers, my mom had us put brightly colored pom poms into the centers of the flowers. I have a lot of odd buttons and decided to try using those instead of the pom poms. Squeeze some glue into the center of the flower.

Place a button into the glue and press into place.

Step 6 – Enjoy Your New Burlap Flower!

Except for some dry-time, this flower is done and ready to become a part of your home décor.

Another Burlap Flower — With Leaves!

I am happy with how my first burlap flower turned and it was a fun walk down memory lane, thinking back to my youth and doing crafts with my mom. But, I wanted to try to do a little bit more. I wanted to add leaves to my flower stem.

Step 1 – Make the Leaves

The 22 gauge coated florist wire pieces are 18″ (46cm) long. I cut two of them in half to make four (4) burlap leaves. Starting at 4″ (10cm) from the end, bend the wire with your fingers or pliers to form the point of the leaf. Slightly arc the two ends to form the leaf shape. Cross the two ends of the wire at approximately one inch (2-3cm) from the end of the shorter part of the wire.

Twist the ends together. This forms the leaf shape and gives you some leftover wire for the stem of the leaf.

Repeat for the remaining leaves.

When working with the wire, it can get a little bent out of shape. Do your best to make sure the leaves lie flat. You’ll get to curve them later in the project. For now, they need to be flat to attach to the burlap.

Cut a piece of burlap to a size that will hold all your leaves with a little bit of space between the leaves. Put this piece of burlap onto some freezer paper.

Run a bead of tacky glue around the leaf part of the leaf — not the stem part — then lay it glue-side down onto the burlap.

After gluing all the wires to the burlap, lay another piece of freezer paper on top of the leaves and press with a book or similar object. Keep it there for about three (3) minutes. After those few minutes, remove the top layer of freezer paper. Also, lift the burlap up a bit to ensure the glue is not sticking the burlap to the freezer paper. I haven’t had it happen yet but I think it’s because I catch it before it sets too much.

Set the leaves aside while they continue to dry and you make another burlap flower.

Step 2 – Make the Burlap Flower

This burlap flower will be very similar to the first one I described but there will be some differences so you can see that there are other ways to make these.

The steps are the same up through gluing the edges of the burlap together.

For this flower, I used the string-wrapped 18 gauge florist stems and I attached the button to the stem before rolling. Using a shank button, slip it over the end of the stem and bend the end of the stem using the pliers.

Lay the stem against the glue edge of the burlap and roll up as before.

Step 3 – Prepare the Leaves

When your leaves are dry enough (mine took about 10 minutes), cut them out of the burlap, leaving a small amount outside the wire. Don’t cut right up to the wire.

Using the florist tape, start at the base of the leaf, where the leaf meets the leaf stem (where you twisted the wire) and begin wrapping the florist tape. If you have never used florist tape, you need to give it a slight stretch as you wrap the stems and it will stick to itself. Keeping the tape at an angle as you tape to the end. Cut the tape when you reach the end.

Step 4 – Wrap the Stem and Add the Leaves

Starting at the base of the burlap flower, start wrapping with the florist tape.

Getting from the bulky burlap base of the flower down to the stem requires some back and forth and some building up of a taper using the florist tape.

Once you have transitioned down to the stem, continue to wrap for a couple of inches (4-6cm) then lay a leaf stem against the flower stem. Continue to wrap the stem and the bottom inch (3cm) or more of the leaf stem.

After a little more wrapping, incorporate another leaf and work your way to the end of the stem.

After both leaves are on, you can shape them.

Step 5 – Enjoy!

You now have a second burlap flower! You also know a new craft and can make more burlap flowers so you can make a bouquet of burlap flowers. I made four burlap flowers for this DIY with TLC project, one of which I made with white burlap. Burlap takes dye well. I also made Ombre Burlap Flowers. You can make your own by following the steps I describe here!

For the holidays, I dyed burlap red and green and made these loopy burlap flowers into a centerpiece lit with LEDs.

You can get my 5-page set of tips for working with burlap plus get the patterns to all my DIY and craft projects in my Resource Library by signing up for my weekly newsletter.

For Valentine’s Day, I made a Loopy Burlap Flower wreath.

If you liked making these burlap flowers, you can also try making burlap calla lilies.

flowers

Materials and Supplies for the Tulip Gift Card Envelope

Cutting the Pieces By Hand

Cutting the Pieces by Machine

Assembling the Tulip Gift Card Envelope Pieces

Inner Petals Envelope

Outer Petals Sections

Outer Leaves Section

Putting the Tulip Gift Card Envelope Together

Share this:

Like this:

Materials and Supplies

The “Love” Sign

Making the Loopy Burlap Flowers

Assembling the Valentine’s Wreath

Add a Bow to Your Wreath

Step 1: Make the Loops

Step 2: Gather the Loops

Step 3: Poof!

Step 4: Ribbon Streamers

Step 5: Attach the Bow

Like this:

Day 19 of the 24 Days of Christmas Crafting!

Materials and Supplies

About the Burlap

Dying the Burlap

My Test Dyes

Dying the Burlap

Cutting the Burlap

Making the Loopy Burlap Flowers

Assembling the Centerpiece

Light up the Centerpiece with LEDs

The Loopy Burlap Centerpiece is Complete

Share this:

Like this:

Materials and Supplies for the Burlap Calla Lilies

Step 1 – Dye the Burlap Fibers for the Stamens

Step 2 – Cutting the Burlap

Step 3 – Making the Stamens

Step 4 – Making the Burlap Calla Lily Flower

Step 5 – Wrap the Stem

Step 6 – Shaping the Calla Lily

Step 7 – The Burlap Calla Lilies Bouquet

Video Tutorial

My Experiments with Other Types of Cloth

Coarse-Weave Ivory Burlap

Laminated Burlap

Combed Cotton Cross-Stitch/Embroidery Fabric

Like this:

Materials and Tools to make DIY Ombre Burlap Flowers

Details about the Materials and Tools

If you want to remember how to make your own ombre burlap flowers and share the idea with your friends, Pin this DIY Ombre Burlap Flowers to your favorite Pinterest Board.

Like this:

Materials and Tools to make DIY Burlap Flowers

How to Make Your Own Beautiful DIY Burlap Flowers

Step 1 – Cut the Burlap

Step 2 – Remove the Center Burlap Fibers

Step 3 – Glue

Step 4 – Roll onto Stem

Step 5 – Flower Center

Step 6 – Enjoy Your New Burlap Flower!

Another Burlap Flower — With Leaves!

Step 1 – Make the Leaves

Step 2 – Make the Burlap Flower

Step 3 – Prepare the Leaves

Step 4 – Wrap the Stem and Add the Leaves

Step 5 – Enjoy!

Like this:

Footer