My Handmade Felt Spring Flower Wreaths

In January, I set myself a list of goals for the year, and one of those goals was to make a spring wreath. Now here we are in July, and I'm proud to say I've smashed my goal by not only making one spring wreath this year, but four!

I originally intended to make a pom pom wreath with a few felt flowers mixed in, similar to the ones I made last Christmas, but as I got stuck in to the project, I changed direction and decided to ditch the pom poms and made floral wreaths almost entirely out of felt instead.

I started the project back in March, hoping to have the wreaths ready by Easter, but it took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Each stage was time-consuming, with each flower taking up to half an hour to make, and the leaves taking three hours to glue to each wreath alone. I was also hindered by my pain which only allowed me to spend up to an hour on them a day, so I didn't complete my last wreath until early June.

Okay, I might not have finished them in time for spring, but I like to think I'm ahead for next year!

I'd never made anything like them before, but I didn't follow any tutorials (except for how to make the roses, which seemed too complicated to figure out without a little help- they weren't), and made it all by hand through trial and error. I admit, I did have to Google for templates for the petals and leaves because I'm not brilliant at drawing free-hand, and needed something to draw around, but I made everything else up as I went along, using photos of flowers as a guide. I taught myself how to make felt daffodils, tulips, and pansies (with hand-embroidered faces), and enjoyed learning how to make felt roses using this tutorial from The Flower Art. Making the flowers was fun and super satisfying; after a while, I could almost do them with my eyes closed, and began to feel like a felt florist as felt flowers overflowed from jars and bowls around me. Once I got started, I found I couldn't stop making them! It's an addictive process.

I tried to make the flowers look as realistic as a felt flower can, and used a variety of bright and pastel felt sheets from Hobbycraft and The Felt Fairy in shades of yellow, pink, purple, peach, orange, and white, with three to four shades of green for the leaves. Two of the wreaths I made are made of pastel-coloured flowers, while the other two are a little bolder. Unfortunately, I haven't captured the true colours of the felt well in the photos as I suck at photo editing and couldn't get the photos right, but they're much deeper and brighter in real life. The yellow daffodils are bright and cheerful, and the dark green leaves are grass green, not forest, but you get the idea. I can't decide which style I like best- although, I decided to keep the second wreath I made with the purple ribbon, so perhaps I prefer the deeper coloured flowers after all.

To make the wreaths, I began by wrapping spring green wool tightly around one ring of a wooden embroidery hoop for the base, which took about an hour and a half for each one. The next step was attaching the felt leaves to the hoop with a hot glue gun, I used three shades of green felt for the leaves, and it took about three hours just to glue them on to each one- and that's not counting the time it took to cut them all out first. Once the leaves were in place, I played around with different arrangements of the flowers I'd pre-made until I found a look I liked, and then spent a couple of hours gluing them securely to each wreath. To finish the wreath I've completed, I tied a length of pretty ribbon to the screw of the hoop to hang it from (although, for the inner hoops, which don't have a screw on top, this is best done before you glue on the leaves, as you have to tie the ribbon around the embroidery hoop).

I still need to buy ribbon to finish the last three wreaths as I haven't got anything suitable in my stash, but other than that, my felt spring wreath project is complete!

Obviously, I'm not a craft blogger, but I had hoped to blog a tutorial to show you guys how to make a felt spring wreath, but spring has been and gone, and now summer is swiftly ticking away, I guess it's going to have to wait until next spring instead. If anyone wants to know how I made anything, though, just send me a message, and I'll try to talk you through the process. I am planning to show you how to make a felt Christmas wreath before the year is through, though, so watch out for that this November / December! 

I've moved on to making felt Christmas wreathes already, so that they'll actually be ready to hang on time this Christmas, and have been busy making red felt poinsettias and roses over the last few weeks. I'm going to figure out how to make felt amaryllis flowers next. Once you get started, it's hard to stop! 

Without meaning to toot my own horn, I'm really pleased with how well the felt wreaths came together, and proud of them for a first attempt at felt flower / wreath-making. Apparently, you really can do anything when you set your mind to it!

Have you ever tried to make a felt wreath or flower? What was the last thing you crafted?

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Currently | April 2018

It's been ages since I last wrote a 'Currently' post (like more than six months ago), so I thought it was about time I put a new one together and updated you on some of the things I've been doing and enjoying lately. Today, I'll fill you in on what I've been reading, watching, buying, making, loving and much more.

Shall we start with the books?

Reading

Since the last time I did one of these 'currently' posts, I've worked my way through the Me Before You series by Jojo Moyes, Me Before You, After You, and Still Me, which I absolutely adored (although, After You wasn't the best). I reread a little of Little Women, A Christmas Carol, and Carrie, and most recently finished How To Stop Time by Matt Haig, and Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon, both of which I really enjoyed. I've now moved on to A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge, the author of The Lie Tree, but I've only read a few chapters so far, so I couldn't tell you much about it yet, except that I'm hooked already. I'm really enjoying reading again at the moment, so if anyone's got any book recommendations, let me know in the comments! I read a bit of everything. 

Watching

I haven't watched many new films or TV shows lately as I just haven't been in the mood to concentrate on anything new- plus I've misplaced my Amazon Fire Stick remote so I haven't been watching Netflix in bed as much. I've mostly been enjoying The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, Timeless, and Home and Away, and I've got in to watching The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie in the middle of the night because I haven't been sleeping well. I used to love both shows when I was a kid. (FYI, I watched reruns in the nineties; I wasn't alive when they were first out! I'm not that old!) I've also enjoyed watching Little Women (the BBC series), The Miniaturist, Suffragette, The Cloverfield Paradox, Belle, and re-watching The Theory of Everything and Beauty and the Beast (live action).

Listening
I'm currently obsessed with Fall Out Boy's new album, 'Mania', and have basically been playing it on repeat since it came out a couple of months ago. It's such a catchy album, and it's full of great tunes; I'm hooked on every single one. I particularly love 'Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)', and 'Bishops Knife Trick' and haven't been able to stop playing them this week. I also love Panic! at the Disco's new song 'Say Amen (Saturday Night)', (the music video for it is pretty epic, too) and I can't wait for their new album. It's like 2005 all over again!

Wreath-making

Lately, I've been getting handy with a glue gun, and have made a garden of felt flowers and leaves to add to the Spring wreaths I'm currently making. I've taught myself how to make felt roses, daffodils, tulips, pansies, and their leaves so far, and they've turned out surprisingly well, so I'm pretty darn proud of myself for it. Once I've embroidered faces on to the pansies, I should be ready to start putting the wreaths together... unless I decide I want to make yet another type of flower. in the meantime. I'm finding it really addictive. I've also been breaking out the pom pom makers, and have made a shed load of pastel-coloured pom poms for the Spring wreaths,



Making
In addition to making felt flowers and pom poms, I've also made some polka dot fabric hoop art using the loveliest pastel polka dot fat quarters, and wooden embroidery hoops from Hobbycraft. All I did was frame the fabrics tightly in the hoops, and blanket stitch some felt on to the backs to finish them. They're so quick and easy to make! I then turned the left over fabric in to bandannas for my dog, Rosie, and made her a few others as well. You can see her modelling the mint green one on Instagram here.

Stitching

I'm currently almost half way through a rainbow-coloured spectrum mandala cross stitch from The World In Stitches, and I'm really enjoying stitching with all of those colourful threads. Well, you know me and anything colourful! Moth to a flame. It's the same design as the spectral mandala I made last Summer (which you can see here), except the colours are reversed, with this one edged with red and the rainbow bleeding inwards to purple. The colours are so beautiful and cheerful, and I think it's going to look so pretty when it's finished. If you fancy giving the spectrum mandala cross stitch a go yourself, you can find it on The World in Stitches' Etsy shop here.

Painting

I haven't done a lot of painting lately as I've been too busy crafting, but I have bought a couple more Johanna Basford canvases to paint this Spring. I really need to get back in to it soon because I miss it.

Wanting

To own all the Lindy Bop dresses, Erstwilder brooches, Sophie Conran for Port Meirion Colour Pop crockery, and Too Faced's Life's a Festival make up collection.

Needing

Some new ballet pumps, sandals, ankle boots, clothes I can wear in the heat without melting, and to dye my hair. My roots are getting ridiculous, and the greys coming through are depressing me big time. There's no way I'm getting old already. No way at all. *Cries.*

Wishing

I could have a holiday, and go on some more concert adventures. I also wish my tachycardic heart would go back to normal already and let me sleep, and the back and joint pain would give me a break for a little while, but that's probably too much to ask.

Having
Blood tests, blood tests, blood tests, kidney scans, DEXA scans (bone density scans), yet another new anti-inflammatory drug that weakens the immune system... Don't worry, though, I'm fine! I'll try to do a proper health update to fill you in soon.

Buying

I've treated myself to a few new bits and bobs lately, including some Lindy Bop tea dresses, four Erstwilder Christmas brooches in the sale, some books, craft supplies, the Urban Decay Heavy Metals palette (oh, it's so pretty!), and a Cath Kidston Park Wildlife fox ring dish and fox and rabbit crockery.

Loving

The sunshine that has finally put in an appearance after a long dreary grey winter and given us the hottest April in something like seventy years. I've not been able to go out and enjoy it, sadly, but I'm appreciating the sunshine flooding through the windows, having some decent light for blog photos for a change, and the obligatory ice creams. (By the way, Haagen Daz's Vanilla Caramel Brownie ice cream is amazing)! It's helped to lift my mood, even if I have been melting in the heat. I'm not crazy about the heat, so I'm glad it's cooled down again this week

Missing
Rosie, who is away in the kennels this week while my parents are on holiday, as I haven't got the pain tolerance to look after her single-handedly for so long. I feel so guilty leaving her there when I'm home, but needs must. The house is far too quiet without her, though, and I don't like it. I can't wait to get her back this weekend.

Seeing
Fall Out Boy live at the O2 in London a few weeks ago. It was the third time I've seen them live, and they were phenomenal! I'd go as far as saying it was one of the best gigs I've ever seen! I wish I could go back and experience it all over again; it was over waaay too soon. If you'd like to read about it, I blogged about the experience here.

And that is basically what I've been up to lately in a nut shell.

What about you? What have you been enjoying lately?

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