Fabric Flower Tutorial

Fabric flowers are really fun and easy to make. They make great head bands or cute accessories to any of your projects.

Start out by choosing your favorite fabric and cutting it into 2 inch strips. To make a small 2 inch flower you need a strip or several strips that add up to be about 3 feet.

You need a base to make your flower on, I used felt for this flower but you can also use heavy card stock. Cut whatever you decide to use into a circle that is the size you want your finished flower to be. For mine I used a 2 inch felt circle.














When I am using felt I like to use hot glue for my adhesive and tacky glue when I am using card stock.

Next fold your fabric in half so that the pattern is showing on both sides and then tie the end of your fabric into a knot. Glue it to the center of your circle.

Start twisting your fabric, if you do not want any fray to show make sure as you are twisting that you tuck them in. I like a little frayed look so I let them do whatever they want. Once your fabric is twisted start gluing and wrapping it around your knot. Put the glue directly on the felt and then press the fabric to it.

Keep wrapping the fabric around until it is the size you would like it to be. If you decide you want the flower to be a little smaller than your felt circle you can trim off the excess felt.

Once the flower is the size you want it to be take the tale, tuck and glue it under the flower.




Voila!! Now you have a fabric flower. For different variations you can twist your fabric more loosely or even tighter. You can also use wider fabric strips.



I chose to make an accessory for a jar I have in my scrapbook room by adding ribbon and a gem to the center of the flower and then attaching it to my jar. This would have made a super cute head band too!

Linked to:

runwithglitter
fabricbowsandmore 

Dishwasher Detergent

Here is another one of my "sick of spending so much money on soap?", "tired of loading the dishwasher after dinner and finding you are out of dishwasher soap, again?". Save money and grocery store trips and make your own. It's really easy and last's forever!

Here is what you need.

 Dishwasher Detergent ingredients:
1 box Borax (4lbs 12 oz or 76 oz ) (2.15 kg) found in the detergent isle
1 box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda (55 oz or 3 lbs 7 oz) found in the detergent isle
24 packages of unsweetened lemonade drink mix, like kool-aid. (**Note: lemonade will stain soap dispenser yellow, another option would be to use citric acid instead of lemonade. You can usually find citric acid in the canning isle )
3 cups Epsom Salt
Lemi Shine rinse aid (this recipe does not work very well without it) You can find Lemi Shine in the dishwasher detergent isle at just about any store. You can also use vinegar as a rinse aid. If your dishes are coming out with spots on them that means you do need a rinse aid.







Use Lemi Shine as a rinse aid. It works wonders. Just sprinkle about a tablespoon in the bottom of your dishwasher before you start it. This stuff is awesome!!

If you want you could cut this recipe in half or even smaller to just try it out. You will still have to buy large boxes of Borax and Washing Soda which you can store for later use.
Mix Borax, washing soda, salt and lemonade together in a large, very large, bowl. When ingredients are mixed together well put soap in a container of your choice. I picked up a container at Walmart in the kitchen center with a pouring spout for $5.00 and it is big enough to hold an entire batch of dishwasher soap. The soap does get hard spots in it after a while so do be prepared for some hardening, I have not been able to get around that no matter what I do.

It even has a pouring spout to make things easy.

Use 1 tablespoon per wash cycle. It has no fillers so you do not have to use nearly as much to get the job done! This recipe is for hard water users, if you have soft water you may want to browse the internet for a better recipe for soft water.

Are you ready for the breakdown??
1 box of borax $4.69
1 box A & H washing soda $3.19
24 packages of lemonade $2.80
3 cups of salt $2.00, this one is a guess because I already had salt in my storage and who knows how much I payed for it.

Total= $12.68

1 tablespoon at a time........you tell me how long that's going to last.



To top off my project me and my Cricut got together :) and cut out letters from vinyl to label the container. Yes I know they are a little crooked but I am to cheap to buy transfer paper for all my vinyl needs, besides I am storing it in the cupboard under my sink. I tried my first load yesterday and was quiet impressed with how clean my dishes were. I hope it works well for you too!

Valentine Heart Garland

Just thought I would share pictures of the Valentine garland I made last week! Very festive.