Project: Boutique Bloom Headband

We're making THIS today!  

What is so addictive about crafting? It's making something out of nothing!

Looking around my office yesterday I was overwhelmed. I have enough craft supplies that I am confident I could make Martha Stewart cringe. What should I use? I had been cleaning and dejunking my office most of the day so I was already in the mindset of finding things I no longer needed and ditching them.

My eyes settled on this random bag of synthetic flower petals. Nothing special about them. They have long since lost their original packaging to a toddler. The were one of those things I picked up on clearance, two Valentine's Days ago, thinking that they were some great find for a project I never got around to. This is otherwise known as the crafters curse. Even if you aren't a packrat you transform into one!

I was determined to make them into something special from the nothingness they were in the abyss of my office.

Things you need:
Flower petals
3/8 headband or any skinny headband of your choice
3/8 ribbon  *We used 3/8 white with hot pink swirls from http://www.allaboutribbon.com/*
Button or some kind of center embellishment
Marabou puff (optional)

Hot Glue Gun
Lighter
Clothes pin
Scissors (not pictured~ya all know what these look like)
E6000 glue (optional)

Covering your headband
1. Take your 3/8" headband and glue tabs on both ends so that the plastic ends are covered.

Heat seal the end of your ribbon by running the flame of your lighter along the edge of the ribbon. By melting the end of the ribbon this prevents fraying. You will notice a slightly glossy look as it melts.

2. Glue the ribbon on the inner side of the headband straight across at a 90 degree angle from the headband.

3. As you start to wrap, try to angle it at a 45 degree angle. Normally I have a very slight overlap for the first 1 or 2 times around the headband. The goal here is to get the ribbon to be wrapped next to each other not on top of each other. Wrap the full headband to the other end.

To finish place a dot of hot glue on the headband, trim to the appropriate length to allow it to wrap around, heat seal this ribbon and hot glue to finish.

Making the flower
Most things in nature grow in odd numbers. If you count most flowers' petals they will almost always be odd numbers. For making things more naturally pleasing visually you want to make sure you use an odd number of items.

Arrange 5 petals with the pointy tips overlapping on each other as little as possible. We want to make this bottom layer as wide as we can with our petals. Hot glue in place by tacking them together with a dot of glue on each petal. Repeat this step on the next layers. For each additional layer try to glue the pointy end of the petal further in so that your petals overlap more and are making a slightly smaller layer. I used 3 layers for my flower. Glue your layers together.

Now all we need to do is finish your flower. Add your embellishments to your flower. I added a puff of marabou because feathers are in style right now. I also wanted to use something soft to balance the very hard metal presence of the blingy button I selected. You could embellish your flower with regular buttons stacked, acrylic rhinestones, bottle caps or anything else that says, "USE ME!" that you have sitting in your house.

(Optional tip: When attaching metal buttons I am a bit of an overachiever. I apply an outer ring of hot glue and then fill the center of the circle with E6000.  The hot glue helps it stay in place while the E6000 sets up. I always worry that the button will get pulled on and pop off so rationally I use the type of glue that in my 20's was also used to reapply my Mazda emblem back on the front of my car.)

Attach the flower to the headband with hot glue. I use both hot glue and E6000 to secure it to the headband by alternating a dot of hot glue with E600 then another dot of hot glue. Fold a couple of the lower petals back under on the headband and place your clothes pin so that it can hold your flower in just the right spot while it sets up for the next several hours. If you opt to use only hot glue you can skip the clothes pin.

*Poof*
You now have a finished flower headband. Pretty unique as well as a perfect way to customize special occasion hair accessories. You can easily blend several colors of petals for a custom look. These petals are available in all craft stores year round in the wedding supply isle and you can use your coupons on them!

Big Shout out to Silly Frilly Kids for the beautiful dress our model is sporting!