Use Scraps of Fabric and Brads to Fashion a Flower for Your Paper Crafts

If you are looking for a simple, fast way to jazz up your cards, scrapbooks, gift bags, or any other paper craft, creating fabric flowers add instant pizzazz.

You can use leftovers from quilting, sewing projects, or even clothes ready for the recycle bin to create beautiful flowers to quickly embellish your crafts. All you need is a few minutes time and supplies you likely have on hand.

Supplies Needed:

Fabric
Metal Brads
Scissors
Small Razor Knife (Pencil Style)
Felt (optional)
Glue or Other Adhesive (optional)

Preparation:

1) Decide what project you'd like to add fabric flowers to and gather additional materials (cards, gift bags, scrapbook pages, paper frames, and so forth.)

2) Cut fabric into squares (one square per flower you wish to design.) Two inch squares make small flowers. Three inch squares make medium size flowers. Four inch squares make large flowers (these will encompass most of the surface area of a 3x5 card front.) Feel free to super-size flowers by cutting 5 inch or 6 inch squares.

3) If you would like to have leaves for your flowers, use felt or additional fabric scraps to fashion a leaf shape (1-2 per flower you expect to create.)

Instructions:

Pinch one corner of the fabric square between your index finger and thumb. Fold this end of square fabric into the center of the square. Twist end slightly to "pucker" fabric into flower petal shape.

Repeat with each corner of the square fabric, overlapping ends slightly in the center (to allow the brad to pierce all ends of fabric simultaneously.)

Use a small razor knife or eyelet tool to poke a hole through center of fabric flower. Insert brad through hole.

Use the small razor knife (or an eyelet tool) to poke a tiny hole through the paper you are going to attach fabric flower to. The hole should only be big enough to slide the fastening end of the metal brad through.

Insert brad end and open the brad end to secure the flower to paper.

Enjoy the beauty and simplicity of your creation!

Optional: Place felt (or fabric) leaf shapes in desired position to accentuate the fabric flower. Secure leaf with glue (or other adhesives.)

Note: If you would prefer to produce flowers in an "assembly line" fashion or do not have metal brads to work with, a hot glue gun can be used to secure the fabric petal shape of the flower and a small dot of fabric or felt can be used for the center of the flower. Flowers can then be adhered to paper crafts at a later time using metal brads or other adhesives.