Fabric-Punched Bouquet

Bring the beauty of flowers that never fade into your home with this surprisingly simple craft. Our trio of vintage-style keepsake bouquets includes pink violets, blue hydrangeas, and purple-and-gold pansies.

MATERIALS

• Lightweight fabrics (such as voile or Indian cotton)
• Tray
• Medium paintbrush
• Liquid fabric stiffener, at crafts stores
• Petal and leaf craft punches
• Micro hole punch
• Floral pips (small wires with colored tips used to make silk flowers), at crafts stores
• Contact cement
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Green floral tape
• Floral tape
• Vase (optional)

STEPS

STEP 1

Begin by punching fabric flowers: Lay a piece of fabric in a shallow tray. With a medium paintbrush, apply enough fabric stiffener to saturate, but not soak, the fabric. Let it dry, about 1 hour. Repeat with any remaining fabric.

STEP 2

Using craft punches, punch out petals and leaves as close together on the fabric as possible.

STEP 3

Using a micro hole punch, make a hole in the center of each bloom. Slip a pip through each hole, and secure it with a dab of contact cement.

STEP 4

To make a stem, cut a length of floral wire, and wrap it around each pip with green floral tape.

STEP 5

For leaves, glue floral wire to each one to create veins and stems. Wrap stems with floral tape.

STEP 6

Gather blooms and leaves into a bouquet, and either tuck them in a vase or wrap the stems in more floral tape to join them.

Needle-Felted Woodland Ornaments

Forest animals, mushrooms, and bristle ornaments mix the natural and the fantastical -- and bring texture to your tree.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS

3 mm wool felt
Colored tailor's chalk pencil
Roving
Needle-felting mat and tool
Screw punch
Twine

1. Print templates; cut out.
2. Trace templates onto felt with tailor's chalk, and cut out.
3. Place a felting-needle mat under felt, and lay a few tufts of roving side by side where desired. Using a needle-felting tool, punch fibers through felt until they transfer evenly to the reverse side.
4. Remove stray fibers by pressing felted area with one hand and teasing out stray pieces with the other. Repeat until area is covered.
5. Use a screw punch to make a hole at the top. Hang with twine.