Hair Flower Menagerie

This past weekend, my daughter went camping and my hubby went to Philly with the guys, so I was alone here. This means I many hours to craft. I went to a Dollar Tree and bought some fake flowers to turn into hair accessories. I took the flowers and leaves off the stems. I disassembled the flowers to remove the plastic parts. Then I used several flowers to make the finished flower fuller. I layered the petals from smallest to largest (well expect for the carnations, the petals are all the same size). All of the flowers are hand sewn together and have an alligator clip on the back. I have a collection of vintage and basic buttons, so I variety of ones to use for the centers.

For the 1st three flowers, I didn't alter the flowers petals.

Red flower with skull

Sunflower

Red Carnation

The last three, I altered the petals with acrylic paint. I still need to add leaves and clips to the last 3. They took the longest to make because of the painting and drying time. I enjoyed playing with the techniques to see what would work best. I painted the layers of petals separately, before sewing them together.

This one started out as a red carnation (like the above photo). Dark red with black tips. I added water to black acrylic paint. I 1st tried to paint only the edges, but the color bleed into the center and wacky, but it did look pretty. Then, I painted the whole petal with the watered down acrylic. Then I used full strength black acrylic paint to paint the edges of the flower. It's really crunchy, but I like that because it reminds me of a dried carnation.

First, I tried to paint the dots with a small brush, but they were uneven and not all round. Next I used a black paint pen. The dots were smaller, but even in size. Also, a paint pen made it easier to apply the dots quickly and precisely.

This one started out as a fuchsia carnation. For this one, I used several layers of black acrylic paint to cover the color, but there are spots where you can still see it. Next time, I will use more layers of black paint. Black fake flowers are very hard to find any time of the year except Halloween and even then, they are expensive and there's not a big selection. I'm determined to figure out a way to dye them...I AM! Back to the paint, I mean point...I used a white paint pen and a ruler to paint the stripes. This took a while and was slightly difficult because of the ripples in the flower, but obviously achievable. If you can't tell (I tried to take a great photo with the super macro setting), the center button has a white 3D flower. It's one of my favorite buttons in my collection.

Ok, that is all for now. I figure 6 flowers will hold you off until I finish the other batch I bought yesterday...(insert mad crafter laugh)