Project Wednesday: Felt Rosettes

One thing is for sure, these days, if you have girls in your house, you very likely have an abundance of flower hair clips. At least if you live in my house you do. I don't know what it is that's so addictive about making them, maybe it's the instant gratification of sitting for an hour at the craft table and whipping out a dozen pretty hair things. Once you get it down, there's no stopping the barrage of flowers stuck on clips that will flow from your craft room, or dining room, or garage, wherever you happen to get your craft on.

But I must clue you in to something about these babies... they are magical. That's right, magical. They magically end up all over the house, they magically end up under your kids beds or in their backpacks. Invariably, one of a set of identical hair clips will magicaly disappear. And they like to congregate in messy piles. My kids hair clips all magically end up in a pile right next to the nifty hair bow organizers I've made. They absoluely refuse to stay on the organizer itself. I'm not sure where the magic comes from. Maybe it's like static electricity that builds up over repeated clippings. It doesn't stop me from making more, though!

Enough chit-chatting... on to the project, already!

Today's project is... Felt Rosettes

You know, I'm all about kid friendly projects and this is another one!  My 8-year-old daughter Samantha will sit and make these for hours... okay... minutes at a time.  And some of hers actually turn out good enough to wear!  I've worn her creations with pride, myself.  I still do the hot glueing for her.  That old aversion to crying, you know.  But, its definitely a fun Mother/Daughter project.  Sam even thinks she's going to sell these.  I'm not sure where or how.  She asked me how many she'd have to sell to earn enough money for us to go to Disneyland.  That's a lot of hair bows, Honey. 

The supplies for this project are simple.  Felt squares {love these because they don't fray}, scissors {or pinking shears}, hot glue, hair clips {I get mine in a big box from Sally Beauty Supply}, and my secret ingredient... thin rubber shelf liner.  I glue a little piece of the shelf liner inside the barette.  It keeps even heavy barrettes firmly in my kids hair.  And it even works to keep barrettes in baby fine hair.  I love that stuff!  You can get it pretty cheap at any discount store and one roll will last you {forever}!

You can make these large or small, just adjust the size of the square of felt.  I've made teeny tiny ones from 2" squares and big ones from 6" squares.  Be creative and figure out which size works best for you!

Here are the full instructions.  If you have trouble reading it, just click on the image below to open it full size.

My favorite part of this project?  It doesn't have to be perfect.  If your square isn't square, and your spiral isn't perfect, it doesn't matter.  It turns out looking fantastic every time!  That's why Samantha enjoys making these so much.  And my really {really} favorite part of this project?  My friend, Heather, and I like to get together and craft and this is one of our favorite projects.  We can sit and make these for an hour or two and just chit-chat away about anything.  It's like Craft Therapy! 

A while back on the old blog I posted a couple of simple hairbow and headband tutorials.  I've reposted those here on the new blog to save them for posterity.  Maybe you missed them when they were first posted and they'll be new to you!  Happy Hair Clip Making!

Time to get crafty, people!

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