I am almost ashamed to admit this, being an avid crafter and all, but... I'm not very good with glue. Whenever I use glue, it gets everywhere. All over me, my project, the office, etc. And glue + felt? Oh, disaster.
So why not try it, huh?
The project I attempted was from the book Nifty, Thrifty, and Kitschy Crafts, by Leah Kramer (Craft Superhero and founder of Craftster). I probably would not have bought this book because there is a baby doll head on the front that kind of creeps me out:
But I'm a big fan of Leah (I fully credit Craftster with my return to crafting after a long mostly craft-free period in my life) and I got to meet her in person when she was on her book tour, so I bought the book then. See how mine's autographed:
(She was really great!)
Since I'm on a flower making kick right now, I thought I would try out the felt flowers. There are patterns for 3 different flowers, but I was really attracted to the Zinnia:
Looks great there, doesn't it? Yeah. Mine is not so great:
(Ugh! Glue everywhere!)
Part of the problem, I will admit, was having the wrong kind of glue. My regular white glue had dried up (from lack of use -- have I mentioned I'm not very good with glue?) so I used some Goop. That's not really the right thing for felt, I know.
But I tried to go forward with it anyway. Then I realized I was failing and abandoned the project to get the right kind of glue (the classic: Aleene's Tacky Glue) but I'm still not happy with my results. As you can see, there are a lot of glue bits all over this thing.
The flower is also kind of bulky, which I'm not crazy about. See how thick it is:
She used a pom-pon, but I didn't have any, so I made a fabric covered button (I forgot how easy and fun those are to make! Whee!) but I think it kind of looks like a nose, which isn't great.
If I try this flower again, I'm definitely going to try sewing it. I'm just not good with glue. Why fight it?
love,
kelly
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5 comments:
aw, i have the same issue with glue! i love goop, but i always get it everywhere, and i hate how white glue or tacky glue bleeds (stay where i put you damnit!).
i think your flower looks great! i can see how sewing might be better, but then again, i always prefer sewing over glue! i do really like the covered button though!
it's so funny that the doll head creeped you out! i made my own "updated" versions of that when the book first came out - goth baby and zombie baby! if you wanna see, i don't think i ever posted them on my blog, but they're on craftster.
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=104837.0
and yay for meeting leah! she's awesome, isn't she? she came to vancouver to film a craft show last year and i picked her up at the airport and we went shopping for a few hours before i took her to her hotel. she's such a sweetheart and we had so much fun.
I think you're being too hard on yourself. That flower looks good! I can't wait to see what else you come up with for your bouqet. (LAPTOP arrived!!!)
Kelly that flower is GREAT! A flower like that might look really good on a winter jacket... perhaps a tan one? Not sure who owns one of those...
Have you tried U-hu glue? It find it less goopy than say Tacky Glue for crafts and it might work well on your flower projects.
Love the flower and I agree you are being too hard on yourself. If you would like to try UHU glue, let me know. I manage the UHU craft Blog over at www.GlueWithUHU.com and we've got free samples :)
Alyssa
Blog Manager
www.GlueWithUHU.com
Wow! Thanks, Alyssa! Thanks for stopping by -- I'd love to try a UHU sample.
I went to your blog, but I can't find contact info for ya, so I hope this reply finds you. Drop me a line if you get this and we'll hook up!
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