Felt Flower Crowns

I've always loved the idea of flower crowns, but I often wished that the flowers could last forever. To celebrate this spring season, I wanted to make festive floral blooms out of felt so that they could be used as a fun decoration that would last the whole year round.

In this Instructable, I'll show you how to make felt flower clips, which you can turn into a rearrangeable flower crown or wreath. This flower crown will also make a lovely Mother's Day gift that'll stay fresh forever!

A note about this post, I tried to include as many photos as possible to give you a better idea of each step, so don't forget to click the "more images" button on the photo collections!

Step 1: Materials

Here's what you'll need for this project. Included are links to the materials I purchased, but most of these should be easy to find in local craft stores or online.

Flower crown base:

• Floral stem wire
• Floral tape

Felt flower clips:

• Colored felt sheets
  • I used wool felt from Benzie Design. Wool felt is generally more expensive but comes in more varied and natural colors. You can also get acrylic felt from craft stores like Michaels or JoAnn Fabric. Acrylic felt is more economic and tend to come in brighter, sometimes more neon, colors.
• Hair clips
• Green wire (optional)
  
  • You can use the wire to help give your leaves more structure

Tools

• Scissors
• Hot glue gun
• If you have an electronic cutting machine that can handle felt (e.g. the cricut explore) or a die cutter (e.g. sizzix or the cricut cuttlebug) now would be a good time to break out your equipment! With these, you can try cutting more intricate leaf and petal shapes than you'd get with scissors.

Step 2: Make the Base of Your Crown (or Wreath)

If you want to arrange your flower clips into a crown or a wreath, you'll need to make a wire base.

Take two pieces of floral stem wire and bend them to form a wire circle large enough to fit around your head. I prefer to have the crown large enough such that the front sits a centimeter below my hairline and the back is around the middle of my head. I also twisted the ends of the wire together to keep them together.

I then wrapped the twisted parts of the wire in floral tape so that the wire ends would not be irritating. Floral tape works best if you stretch it before wrapping (it becomes more sticky when you stretch) and sticks best to itself, so make sure you overlap existing tape as you wrap.

Step 3: Poppy Instructions

The poppy is a bright, attractive flower and is the official state flower of California. Red poppies often have a dark or black centers, but my felt version is a more colorful interpretation!

1. Cut out about nine red petals. You will also need a small strip of light green, a strip of dark green, a rectangle of yellow, and a rectangle of mustard yellow. For both the yellow rectangles, you'll want to cut a fringe along one edge.
2. To form the center of the flower, roll the light green strip and hot glue the end. Then glue and wrap the dark green strip around the roll, the light yellow fringed rectangle, and the mustard yellow fringed rectangle.
3. Next, give the petals a more 3D structure by making a cut down the middle of the petal and gluing the two resulting flaps one over the other.
4. Glue the flower center onto the edge of one of the petals. Continue to attach the remaining petals around the center. I find that going in a random order (instead of spiraling the petals around the center) makes for a more natural arrangement.

Step 4: Adding Leaves

Cut two large leaf shapes out of dark green felt and cut small, thin triangles out of the edges to make the leaves look slightly more poppy-like. Glue these onto the back of your poppy.

Step 5: Ranunculus Instructions

Ranunculus are beautiful full bodied flowers with many layers of delicate petals that are often colored in a gentle gradient. To make a felt version of these:

1. Cut petals in a few shades of colors. I chose a green to pink gradient, where the green petals will be in the center. Note that the innermost petals are small and circular and the outer petals get progressively larger.
2. Use hot glue to glue the innermost petals (green) in a row, as shown.
3. Take the row of inner petals and roll it up into a spiral, gluing the end to keep it together.
4. For the next color set of petals (light green), I made the petals more 3D by making a cut down the center of the petal and gluing the resulting flaps one over the other.
5. Glue these 3D petals around the center green petal spiral.
6. Continue to build up your flower by gluing petals around the center. I first arranged the white petals and then the pink.

Step 6: Attaching a Clip to a Flower

To attach a clip to your flower, first cut a circle of felt. Fold the circle in half and cut a small slit about a third of the way on the folded edge. Insert the top part of a clip into the slit and apply glue to the felt circle. Attach the circle to the flower.

Now your flower is ready to clip into your hair or on your crown!

Step 7: Flower Bud Instructions

These tiny flower buds are a great way to fill up your felt flower arrangement so that it looks more lively and complete.

1. Take a square of felt and cut a curve starting from a corner and moving towards the center of the square, as shown. Repeat for each corner.
2. Flip the square over and cut curves in the same direction as the previous step. You should end up with a cross shape like in the picture above.
3. Make a smaller similar shape in your desired leaf color.
4. Glue the leaf piece of felt onto the bud piece. Cut a small slit in the center.
5. Take a piece of wire and make a small loop at the top. Insert the wire into the slit and glue the wire to the inside of the bud.
6. Glue the four tips of the bud together.

Step 8: Rose Instructinos

The classic rose is an easy flower to make out of felt! You can make a young rose bud by attaching fewer petals or can turn it into a rose in full bloom by adding more petals.

1. Cut a number of rose petals in the shape shown above. For the center petals, I tended to cut shorter and wider petals so that they would be easier to roll up. You can also make the petals look more interesting by cutting wavy curves at the top of the petals.
2. Create the rose center by rolling a petal into a spiral and gluing the end.
3. Begin attaching petals around the center petal. You can make each petal more shapely and interesting by dabbing a bit of glue down the center of the petal and pinching the petal to give it shape.

Step 9: Hibiscus

Hibiscus are tropical flowers with a long, central pistil. This felt version will be a great accessory for the summer (time to break out those Hawaiian shirts!).

1. Cut about eight petals (three smaller petals will wrap around the flower center and the other five will be glued at the base). You'll also need a small, fringed rectangle for the flower stamen and another small rounded rectangle (orange) to be the pistil.
2. Take a piece of wire and wrap / glue the fringed yellow rectangle around the tip of the wire.
3. Wrap the orange piece of felt around the wire and glue it on. This is the center of your hibiscus.
4. For the three center petals, make them 3D by cutting a slit down the middle of the petal and gluing the resulting flaps one over the other.
5. Glue these three petals around the center pistil.
6. Attach the remaining petals to the wire at the base of the flower, arranging them to be more open.

Step 10: A Different Type of Leaf Arrangement

Here's another idea for a type of leaf that you can add to your flowers. These are thinner and pointier leaves. I arranged and glued them to pieces of wire so that I could bend them into more desirable shapes.

Step 11: Succulents

There's not much in the plant world that's more trendy than succulents right now! These drought hardy plants are great fillers for arrangements.

1. Cut an even number of succulent leaf shapes. Each succulent leaf will actually be two pieces of felt, to give that it that nice, firm succulent looking shape.
2. Group the leafs into pairs and glue the two pieces together
3. Pick a leaf to be the center of your succulent. Add a dab of glue in the middle of the leaf and pinch it in half to give it a nice 3D shape.
4. Continue to glue leaves around the center piece, optionally using the method from step 3 on each leaf to give them more structure.

Step 12: Daisies

This cute simple flower can be made either large or mini-sized. Making small daisies also works as a great filler for arrangements.

1. Cut a number of longer, relatively thin petals out of white and a yellow rectangle for the center of the daisy.
2. Fold the center rectangle piece in half on the long side (hot dog style) and glue the ends together.
3. Fringe the folded rectangle on the folded edge. Then roll it into a spiral and glue the end.
4. To make the petals more 3D, cut a slit down the middle of the petal and glue the resulting flaps, one over the other.
5. Attach the petals around the flower center.

Step 13: Anemone

Anemone are a type of flower in the same family as the ranunculus and grow year round. These felt anemones will stay in bloom all year as well!

1. Cut a number of round, simple petals (I used a peach color). For the center, cut two long, thin rectangles of black and a thin rectangle of peach. (The cut pieces pictured above aren't quite right, since I changed my mind after).
2. For the center, fringe the two black rectangles and the peach rectangle on the long edge. Roll up one of the black pieces in a spiral and glue the end. Wrap it in the peach rectangle and glue. Then wrap the second black fringed piece around the center and glue.
3. Make the petals 3D by cutting a slit down the middle of a petal and glue the resulting flaps together, one over the other.
4. Attach the petals around the flower center.

Step 14: Ferns

Here's another type of leaf that might be interesting to add to your crown!

To make a fern, make triangular cuts on either side of a long and thin leaf shape. You can take a piece of wire and glue it to the center of your fern leaf to give it shape and structure. I pinched together the sides of the fern slightly when gluing on the wire so that the fern would not be so flat.

Step 15: Arranging Several Pieces Into a Single Clip

You can make your clips more interesting by composing several flowers and or leaves into an arrangement. Here, I added two ferns to the back of an anemone and attached a daisy by gluing one of the daisy petals to the anemone and another daisy petal onto a fern.

Step 16: Enjoy Your Flowers!

We've gone through a lot of different types of flowers and plants that you can make out of felt, and I hope you find one or some that you feel inspired to create!

Once you have at least a couple flower clips, you can attach them onto your wire crown base to make a simple flower crown or wreath. Of course, feel free to fill up your crown with as many flowers as you want!

You can also attach the clips to a ribbon to make a flower garland, clip one onto a hat or bag, or just wear them in your hair and on your lapel. I would love to see what you come up with, so please feel free to share your creations in the comments below!