Felt Rose Tutorial

I'm delighted so many of you were interested in my doing this tutorial! These little rose buds are SO easy to make!

Oh and let me just say up front that I am in no way shape or form an expert in sewing - please let me know if you have any questions.

Ok, let's get started! Here's what you'll need:

• A 2" wide x 10" long strip of red felt (I used Eco-fi, but 100% wool would be lovely too!)
• A 3.5" x 3.5" block of green felt
• Red thread
• Green thread (or invisible thread - I started using this, but had a hard time working with it since I could barely see the thread... guess that's the point though!).
• A needle
• A pair of scissors

:: First, take the red strip of felt and with your scissors create scallops along one side. Create small scallops first and then at about the halfway point make the scallops larger (these will be your outer petals).
:: Next, create the leaves by folding your green felt block in half and cutting out identical leaf shapes that should end up being about 2" long x 1" wide.

:: Make your rosebud by rolling the red felt strip scalloped side up, starting with the small scallops. You may need to re-roll a few times to get the overlapping petals look.

:: Using your red thread and holding the rosebud firmly in your hand, begin sewing the bottom of it. I know, my stitching is pretty random. It takes a lot of stitches to secure the many layers of the rosebud. I'm sure there's an easier, nicer looking way of stitching this, but this novice is not that skilled. Also this part gets covered by the leaves anyway.

:: After you've stitched the rosebud, prepare your leaves. Overlap them slightly and with your green thread stitch them together.

:: Next you'll attach the leaves to the base of the rosebud. First, line up the middle of the leaves with the bottom of the rosebud. Then pulling back the leaves slightly, thread the needle through the middle bottom of the rosebud into the leaves. Keep doing this until the two are well connected.

:: Then move onto the edge of the rosebud. This part can be a little tricky. What I do is a little something I like to call "tuck and stitch". :) Thread the needle at the very base of the flower and "tuck it" into the leaves. Do this all the way around the rosebud, trying your best to tuck deeply so no green thread will appear on the flower. (Here is where the invisible thread would work nicely.)

:: Now that your flower is nearly complete, there's just one last thing to do. Flatten the rose petals outward to create that "opening bud" look.

That's it! You now have a sweet little rosebud. :)

I made a dozen of these to use for a Valentine's Day Montessori activity.

Recycled Crayons

We didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up, so my parents were always looking for creative, thrifty ways to keep my sister and I entertained. One such idea was to take all of our broken, worn down crayons and melt them to make new ones!

This idea has been around for a long time and I know it's nothing new to some of you, but I thought a certain Australian might find it interesting (Hi, D!) so I had to post it. :) Plus, James will get a kick out of them, too. No pics of him enjoying them just yet - I'm saving these for his Christmas stocking!

If you want to do this yourself, here's what you need to do:

• Painstakingly remove the paper from each crayon (this is best done in front of the telly with a glass of wine).
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Break up the crayons and group them into your preferred color combination in a muffin tin.
• Turn off the oven and place the tin on the middle rack. After about 10 minutes or so you'll see the wax melt and pool.
• Carefully remove the muffin tin from the oven - try not to jostle it too much or the colors will run together and make an ugly blob. (unless that's what you're going for, of course!) :)
• Let them cool completely. You can put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling process.

That's it! Now you have new, funky, chunky crayons!

A couple of helpful tips:

• DO NOT use washable crayons - they'll leave a layer of clear wax along the top resulting in useless coloring.
• DO NOT use those jumbo crayons. Here I was thinking, oh yeah I'll get more wax from these bad boys, but nope. They refused to melt completely no matter how long I left them in the oven. Also, a few cracks occurred right where the jumbo crayons were... coincidence? I think not.
• If you decide to use the freezer, DO NOT plop them out of the tin onto a countertop or other hard surface (use a towel). Breakage will occur. :(