Friday, October 28, 2011

felt pouches

Charlotte's Fancy has a tutorial for sweet, budget-friendly felt pouches.
She uses hot glue, but these could be created by girls using fabric glue and some patience (or a mama with a hot-glue station for adding buttons and other notions).

Ideas:
  • Pouch for holy cards or Little Flower memory cards
  • Rosary pouch
  • create a felt image of a saint or flower as the cover
  • print an image on fabric and glue or stitch onto pouch
Other ideas?

    Sunday, October 23, 2011

    more paper flowers


    There's no tutorial at Girl Paper Scissors, but the image gives another design idea for paper flowers...
    How about a spiritual bouquet?

    Tuesday, October 18, 2011

    ribbon flower bracelet

    Check out Phar-Ma's precious ribbon bracelet tutorial. 
    To tweak for a group craft:
    • Pre- singe ribbon edges to avoid fraying (if you want to do that step)
    • Allow girls to add velcro
    • Pre cut one flower (instead of two as in the tutorial)
    • glue on with fabric glue or...
    • teach the girls to stitch on the flower, or pin it on?
    For Little Flowers themes: 
    ribbons: find patterns of ivy, hearts, sunflowers, etc.
    center felt design: hearts (add a cross on top for Love of God), ivy, a cut out of your current flower, symbols of the saint or virtue (could even stitch on a saint medal).

    Friday, October 14, 2011

    stitched fabric flowers

    Martha's stitched flowers could be used to create various flowers.
    Sweet and simple (but likely would need mama helpers for tying off, etc.)

    Ideas:
    • stitch onto a totebag
    • hot glue (with adult assistance) onto headbands
    • attach to a wire "stem"
    How might you use these pretty little flowers?

    Monday, October 10, 2011

    beaded keychain tutorial


    Just as St. Monica prayed fervently for her son,
    St. Augustine, mothers can use these keychains
    to whisper prayers or tuck written prayers inside.

    In our group, each girl made two of these-
    one to give to her own mother,
    and another to give to a mother at a local pregnancy center
    (appropriately named the "Hope Center" ).

    Here is how we made ours:


    Materials needed:
    beading wire
    prayer box charms (found ours on ebay for $1 each)
    beads
    keyrings
    crimp beads
    beading pliers or needle nose pliers/wire cutter

    *optional: wire protectors
    **also optional, but helpful- crimping tool

    Set up ideas:
    Precut the wire.
    We set up each girl's "bead plate":
    Foam plate with double-sided tape to keep beads from rolling around.
    *Since we had 12 girls and 3 moms to assist, we prepared the prayer box with wire and a crimp bead (see first few steps below)

    Wire protectors are nifty little loops that protect the wire from wear and tear
    that might occur with a keychain.  If you are using them, here's how they work:
    Thread wire through one hole like this, then...

    thread through second hole to finish the loop.
    Again, these are optional!

    Place charm on wire, and pull wire, leaving about a 1-1 1/2 in tail.

    Thread crimp bead over both wires, squeeze with crimping tool or pliers until snug,
     then add one small bead.
    Add beads as desired, finishing with one small bead, and a crimp bead.

    Be sure to thread the beads over both wires until the tail is covered.

    Loop wire over keyring, then thread the wire back through the crimp bead.

    Use pliers or better yet,
    a crimping tool to secure the wire.
    Cut excess wire, and tuck remaining
    wire into beads.



    Watch this expert video for a better explanation...



    Thursday, October 6, 2011

    photo luminaries

    Martha shows you the how-to...
    Imagine these with sacred art, images of saints, Divine Mercy...
    Use with a battery-powered votive candle.

    Sunday, October 2, 2011

    potential rosary box

    At World of Mex you can find an adorable craft foam box- I'm thinking a smaller version would be sweet for rosary boxes...
    Ways to tweak:
    • smaller size
    • rectangle vs. square box
    • pre-punch for a large group (and to avoid injury ;-) )
    • use cross sticky shapes, or glue on Marian images
    • I highly recommend sticky foam vs. glue-on shapes.
    • make these for orderliness, responsibility?
    ...or you could just purchase these from Oriental Trading.

    Saturday, October 1, 2011

    Welcome!

    Hello! I'm Michele, Catholic convert of 16 years, wife of 15 years, and homeschooling mama of a girl-boy-girl-boy foursome. 
    We're expecting our "tiebreaker" in May 2012. 
    our blessings: our 11y.o. daughter is enjoying her second year in the Little Women of Hospitality program
    while our 5 y.o. daughter is loving her first year in Little Flowers.

    I am a former Little Flowers "craft mama" who needed a place online to collect ideas for Little Flowers crafts.  This blog is that place. 

    Some posts are my own tutorials, or just snapshots of crafts our girls created. 


      
    Most posts are links or round-ups of creative ideas from other crafty folks.  Some will require a little imagination to create a Catholic, virtue-based craft from a secular creation. 
    But, through God all things are possible, right? :-)
    A disclaimer or two- this site is not affiliated with the Little Flowers Girls' Clubs, but rather seeks to supplement a program that has been a true blessing for our family.  Secondly, the sites recommended are only for those specific posts- I'm hoping and praying that nothing else about the sites are offensive. I find a nifty craft and create a link, and that's it. So surf further on those sites with caution, 'kay?
    
    that's me with our LF group- 2010...
    Use the tabs above for specific Wreaths, or for crafts that could be used for multiple virtues, saints, or flowers.  The labels on the right sidebar can help with specific saints, virtues, flowers, or even materials.

    Be sure to check the resources as well- there are some wonderfully talented ladies out there sharing some lovely, lovely gifts- coloring pages, paper dolls, and other amazing resources. Little Flower official materials can be ordered from links at the top of the sidebar.

    Finally, this is a work in progress- I will post as my duties as wife and mother allow. 
    I hope that this little blog will bless you and your Little Flowers. 
    God bless you all!
    Michele