Grow a garden on your wrist!

This is Tess' first year of preschool, so that means her first year to exchange Valentine's with class mates.  There are only a few girls in her class and I thought it would be fun to make something special for them.  I am so excited about these "Bloomin' Wrist" bracelets.  

My inspiration for the bracelet was a flower wrist corsage.  There are so many ways to decorate this bracelet.  In this tutorial I will show you the basic steps and a few of my ideas.

Supplies:
Felt scraps
Tulle
Buttons
Ribbon
Scissors
Hot glue gun (my new best friend)
Large ponytail holders

Needle and thread
Flower template from mmmcrafts (I used the middle and top layer flowers)

First things first.  Trace and cut out your flowers.  I layered different colors of felt with white and gold tulle.  I added a button to the center to finish it off.  When you sew the flower layers together tie your knot on the under side, but don't cut off the extra thread and needle yet.  Just set your flower to the side.

   For the bracelet I used two different lengths of ribbon.  For a simple double knot finish, you will need 12 inches.  If you want to tie your ribbon into a bow, you will need about 20 inches.  Find the center of your ribbon and match it up to the center of the ponytail holder.  You are going to glue almost all the way around the circle.  Carefully hot glue the ponytail holder to the ribbon a little at a time, and leave about 1/4-1/2 inch of the ponytail holder unglued (this is so the rubber band can stretch to put it on).  I found it easier to run the glue on the ponytail holder and roll it on to the ribbon.  

    

You want the ribbon and ponytail holder to end up looking like this picture above.  My brain is really slow right now and I can't think of a better way to explain this part.  So, just look at the picture above and follow that!

Now it's time to attach your flower to the band.  Decide where you want to place the flower.  Take your flower with the thread and needle still attached.  Stitch the flower in place.  I ran my needle through the rubber band too.  I don't know if it's really that necessary, but I did it anyway.

I ended my stitch and knotted the thread in between the layers of the flower.  That way no one can see the knot.  ;)

Your Bloomin' Wrist bracelet should be complete!  

Here are a couple other flower versions.  The top is a yo-yo flower.

 and the red one is a melted flower.  

As I was making these I couldn't stop thinking of all the variations I could make.  

You could skip glueing the ribbon all the way around and just tie a little scrap of ribbon next to your flower.  Oooh, without the ribbon glued all the way around you could also use it for your hair.  How about a cluster of small flowers?  Think of all the colors options...  Make some and let me know how it goes.

*Check back tomorrow for a sweet Valentine project.