Project Two - Yo Yo Bouquet!

I need to preface this ENTIRE post by explaining that I started this post about a week ago (at least) and basically have had MAJOR Internet problems at my house.  Making posting...well a complete nightmare.  So, I think I may finally have enough patience to sit down and try again.  Here goes!!!

Well clearly my whole 300 projects this year thing is going to be tough considering I haven't done crap this week...well up until this morning that is!  That's right - project two ladies and gentlemen (or probably more like singular lady that reads the blog)...yo yo flowers!  I saw such a cute idea for a yo yo bouquet on Pinterest and I knew I had to steal it, copy it, create my own!  It also gave me the opportunity to create yo yos for the first time ever.

This project is a great way to use some of your extra fabric scraps and buttons...and I have plenty of both!  Here's my fabric and yarn storage...

Label makers clearly are one of man's greatest inventions.  (keep in mind, this is just a very small portion of my crafting supplies.  one of these days I'll post some pictures of my craft room on here...for bragging purposes of course).

Anyway, back to the yo yo bouquet.  You'll need the following materials to create your own super cute yo yo flowers:

(1) Coordinating fabric pieces - aren't these cute!

(2) Circle Stencils - You could use a compass but I grabbed a couple of bowls out of my kitchen and used those.  You'll want two sizes of circles so that you have a smaller and larger yo yo that you can layer.

(3) Chalk - for tracing your stencil onto your fabric

(4) Needle and coordinating thread - use a heavy duty thread or double up your thread; also be careful when you're tightening up your yo yo and tying it off.  Breaking the thread and having to re-do the yo yo = no fun (said from experience)!

(5) Buttons!  I know for a FACT that every single crafter/sewer has some type of button collection.  Mine was much larger but I begrudgingly reduced it to just one larger (very large) jar of buttons (as opposed to the shoebox full I once had).  I personally love the button grab bags that most craft stores sell.  Sometimes, you just need some buttons.

(6) Thick wire for the flower stems.  I went and grabbed the thickest wire I could find in the jewelry section of Michaels.  You'll also need wire cutters to trim it so you don't ruin any scissors trying to cut your big 'ol thick wire with some scissors.

(8) Hot glue gun.  What project is complete without some hot glue???

(9) Container for your flowers - I used a mason jar and hot glued some ribbon onto it to make it a little prettier.

Alright, time to start crafting. 

First thing's first...cut out your fabric.  I traced around my bowls with chalk to create my circles, then cut them out.  I had 5 different fabrics I wanted to use, so I basically traced a large and small cicle on each type, then mixed and matched my yo yo's to create my flowers.

Once you get your circles cut out - make your yo yo's.  I found a really great yo yo making tutorial and I'm here here to reinvent the wheel...so check this out if you've never made a yo yo before (I hadn't!)
http://heatherbailey.typepad.com/photos/how_to_make_a_yoyo/hbyoyotutorial1.html

Now get to yo yo-ing.  Once you have all your yo yo's created, start combining the large and small yo yos so that you have 5 flowers - each have a large yo yo in back with a small yo yo in front.  Then I basically just sewed the two yo yo's together and added a button in front of the smaller yo yo.  See...

Once I made all five flowers, I started on my stems.  I cut pieces of wire about 8 inches long or so (you can always trim them up later for shorter stems).  Then I curled the top of the wire around my needle nose wire trimmers (I think that's what they are anyway...that's what I use them as).  Don't wrap the wire too tight or you'll have a real heck of a time getting it off!

Once i pulled it off, I sort of flattened out the spiral so I had a nice flat base to glue to the bottom of my flower.

Now I used a good amount of hot glue and just hot glued the bottoms of my flowers to the wire base I created on the stem.  I'm sure you could also sew them on, but I was really sick of sewing at this point AND hot glue was really fast AND it seems to have held on pretty good so far.

TA DA!  I put my bouquet in a mason jar that I had hot glued a few pieces of ribbon onto.  I also think they'd look great in an old milk jug as well.

Enjoy!