A message
I opened my Etsy shop early August, 2019. My last post remarked it was going well, but few orders were placed. As of April 2020, the shop is now established and orders keep coming in, despite our self quarantine during the Covid-19 crisis. Treehouse Felt Flowers has been my saving grace during the pandemic. Every morning I have a goal of making flowers. For gifts to friends during these hard times. For Easter baskets. To cheer kids doing schoolwork at home. For Mother’s Day. The orders have gotten smaller in flower quantity, but bigger in meaning. I have been challenged to make flowers I’ve never dreamed of making. Treehouse Felt Flowers on IG is approaching 2000 followers. Without this small business, I would feel more isolated. Without this small business, I would feel more stress. Because of this small business, I have a goal and purpose each morning. Thank you to everyone who has placed an order, or liked a post. It means so much to me. Astrid
Adding dimension
The key to realistic-looking felt flowers is dimension. Dimension, or depth, can be achieved with adding shape by seaming, or folding the felt, or by shading. I am always amazed at how realistic felt flowers can look, especially knowing that they started as a flat piece of felt. I use an old flatiron hair straightener to put creases in petal. Watercolor paint, fabric markers, and pastels all can be used to heighten the illusion and make the flowers look real. The color gradation on these lilies is from pastels, and the small dots are fabric marker. All combined, they really make the flowers look real! What do you think?
Both pastels and ironing have helped given dimension to this flower.
Lilies and cherry blossoms
Felt Basics: Greenery
Choosing the colors to use for felt projects is one of the first and most critical steps in the process of creating your own felt flower arrangements. Each color combination has its' own beauty, from deep jewel tones or soft pastels to monochromatic palettes. Some may think any shade of green can be used for leaves and filler shapes such as spiky green "lavender" and round green "dandelions", but choosing colors for your project includes picking shades of green to use to compliment the colors in your arrangements. Lately I've been using Benzie Design's Sage/Blue Spruce felt colors for my greenery. The colors go well with my current fall palette of rusty oranges, deep purples and bright crimson. Using two colors, especially two with such similar tones, adds depth to the project.
All leaves have been cut and glued to a thin wire, ready to be assembled into "stalks".
I try to make a LOT of greenery at one time so I always have enough to use in arrangements. I also need to keep enough on hand for Etsy orders. It's a simple process to make this bi-colored Eucalyptus. I cut squares into 3 sizes: 1", 1.25". 1.5". Each square is cut into a circle, then a thin 3" green wire is glued to the bottom center of the circle. Pressing together the felt forms the leaf shape. The leaves are sorted by shade and size, ready to be attached to a main wire "vein".
The two colors add so much to these simple greens!
A single stalk.
The greenery on this fall wreath is the Eucalyptus above.
The Sage/BlueSpruce combinations look beautiful with the deep rusty oranges.
Creating with felt
I have always loved working with felt! I remember learning the blanket stitch on felt in Girl Scouts many years ago. Over the years I have used felt to make custom gift bags, ornaments, and book marks. A few years ago I discovered flower-making with felt, and I knew I could have a lot of fun recreating lots of my favorite blooms.
The more flowers I made, the more I wanted to make! I got engaged, and decided to make all the flowers for my wedding out of felt! The result was over 1100 flowers made for garlands, banners, centerpieces, embellishments and for my bridal bouquet. Every flower in my bouquet reflected a memory, trip, or family member. As an homage to all the ornaments I designed table numbers out of felt and used embroidery and beads to embellish the pieces. I loved the results.
When the wedding was over, I found myself wanting to continue making custom flowers so I decided to open an Etsy shop and offer custom flower work for those who may be interested.