Flowers for An Easter Bonnet

Today’s post is just in time for Easter. I found this nostalgic Easter Bonnet on  Tammy Tutterow’s Blog.  How perfect  to either wear or use as a beautiful home decor piece.  I can see this hanging on a coat rack, on an end table or anywhere you need a burst of color.  Let’s follow Tammy as she walks us through the instructions on how to make this creation.

For todays project, we wanted to create some vintage style millinery flowers to embellish a vintage hat.

Begin by die cutting several flowers from crinoline.

I used the same technique for all the flowers.  For the tutorial, I am showing the blue-ish green flowers that are next to the large pink flower in the center.  This is the medium-sized round flower on the die.

Mist the die cut flowers with Distress Stain place in a mister bottle.  Leave some areas of white if you can to help create some of the color variation after blending. (Shown here, Broken China Distress Stain.)

Squeeze the fabric flowers in a dry cloth to remove excess stain.

Dry the flowers with a heat tool.

Apply a light-colored Distress Ink to the center of the flowers using an ink blending tool.  (Shown here, Squeezed Lemonade Distress Ink.)

Apply Vintage Photo Distress Ink to the outer edges of the flowers using an ink blending tool.

Mist water onto your hand and flick it onto the flowers.  The water will cause the ink colors to blend and will create some spotting, which will add to the vintage look.

Squeeze the flowers in a dry cloth to remove excess water.

Dry the flowers with a heat tool.

Stack several layers of flowers together. Punch a hole through the center of the stack, (for this flower, I stacked three).

Place a bunch of wired flower stamens through the hole.  To give the stamens a more vintage look, you can brush them lightly with Vintage Photo Distress Ink using an ink blending tool.   You can find stamens in most craft stores, and online on eBay and Etsy  (a search for “millinery flower stamen” will usually do the trick).

Bunch the petals up around the stamen.

Begin wrapping the flower on the cone-like base of the flower.  Tape on this part will help the petals keep their upward shape.

Continue wrapping the tape around the stem.  If the stem of the stamen is short, a piece of floral stem wire can be added depending on how long of a stem you need.

Thank you Tammy for this detailed tutorial.  We hope it inspires you all to create flowers of all shapes and sizes.