Teabag wrapper flowers

Yesterday morning's dental visit resulted in a surprise trip next door for a root canal. Although I am thankful there was no pain involved, I did go home afterward to give my lips time to remember their original location on my face before going out in public again. By mid-afternoon I was feeling a little stir crazy and went to my sewing/crafting room to look for the crafts book "Fanciful Paper Flowers" by Sandra Evertson. Frivolitea blogged about this book the other day and reminded me I'd been meaning to give paper flowers a whirl, so I did ... out of teabag wrappers!

Now this is my first effort at making these, so please be kind (as if you good people would be otherwise!). I traced a pattern in the book, but basically it's about a 1-1/2 or 2-inch long teardrop shaped petal. You cut out six, curl the edges by simple rolling up the petal lengthwise, and hot glue them to a small round piece of cardboard. Glue a button in the middle. Then glue the completed flower disc to a paper wrapped floral wire (bend the end of the wire to give you a "curlicue" that will sink into the hot glue). The End. How easy is that? And all of you scrapbookers out there, can you imagine how pretty these would be made out of pretty patterned scrapbook papers? Maybe some Christmas ones? I'm also thinking it would be cool to make these flowers out of The Times-Herald newspaper, although I might have to use a double thickness of that. And here's a hint for teabag wrapper flowers: The foil teabag wrappers (Bigelow, some Twinings, Publix brand) roll up and stay curled better than the paper ones. Also, next time I think I'll pay attention and make sure all the words are facing the same direction, as I didn't even notice that until after I'd made these flowers.

The bottle is one I've saved for months now. I really, really liked the shape and graphics of this Gold Peak Iced Tea bottle, so I saved it with the label intact. I'll probably make more teabag wrapper flowers for this bottle, but I figured three was enough to share the idea. And if this craft appeals to you at all, I highly recommend "Fanciful Paper Flowers," which has some very creative, well-explained designs, including some "fanciful" paper-flower-covered shoes I'm now hankering to craft up. I do love a good crafts book!