Canvas Flowers - A Mini Tutorial

I was inspired by this post by my friend Jen, and wanted to create a flower bouquet for my craft room (as though I need one more thing in my craft room, but that's another post for another day!). I started by cutting felt flowers but quickly decided I wasn't achieving the look I was going for. I decided canvas was the perfect medium. So here's how I made these:

Materials:

• Cricut and George & Basic Shapes Cartridge (optional)
• a piece of raw canvas - I used a piece about 12x12 (also known as duck cloth - available from a fabric store)
• acrylic paint in your choice of colors
• coordinating buttons
• embroidery needle and embroidery thread
• wooden skewers
• floral moss (from the dollar store)
• a flower pot, vase or other container to hold the bouquet
• floral foam (also from the dollar store)
  

- I used my Cricut and my George and Basic Shapes cartridge to cut flower shapes out of cardstock in various sizes and 2 different styles of flowers. I used 1.5" and 2" flowers. The cardstock flowers became my template. If you don't have a Cricut, you can use a stencil or cut flower shapes freehand.

- I then set the template on raw canvas (also known as duck cloth) and cut out the flower shapes. You could trace them to make it easier.

- Once I had all my flowers cut (I used three flowers per stem), I arranged them in a way that was pleasing to me. Graduated sizes, and different styles and laid them in rows on cardboard. I wish I had taken a pic! Basically, I have 5 stems, so I had 5 flowers laid out and then 2 other flowers below them so that I wouldn't end up with one stem that had all pink flowers, does that make sense?

- I also cut out small leaves from the canvas (I just did this freehand but, again, you could cut a template and trace it if you find that easier).

- Then I used acryclic paint in my chosen color palette and started painting! In addition to the pink, purple, green and turquoise, I also used white to get varying shades of color on each flower. Be warned...this part is seriously addictive!

- Then I added a bit of glitter by simply smearing some glitter glue on the flowers and leaves.

- I then sewed buttons to the center of the flowers. (Getting the needle through the 3 layers of painted canvas took some effort!)

- To make the stems, I painted wooden skewers green and hot glued some pieces of green wire to the leaves. I then wrapped the wire around the skewer to attach the leaves.

- I filled the pot with floral foam from the dollar store (way cheaper than the craft store), stuck the stems into the foam, and topped it off with the moss...

I think this project is a great gift idea! I made them in just a few hours, and I could make more in less time, now that I know the process. Also, it's such a versatile project because it can be customized to match any decor or color scheme, you can use other fabrics, and any container!

Tip: The flowers alone can be used as embellishments for scrapbook pages and other projects!