Let me be really clear with you about something. I LOVE flower crowns. Really, really love them. I’ve made them a few times in the past year, and shared them with you here and on Instagram. There was that cool summer solstice inspired headpiece I made last May, then there was the super happy oversized Dahlia Flower Crown I made for a family photo session last year. Willie wound up modeling it for the blog. My inspiration for that was the portrait of Frida Kahlo wearing cabbage roses. Finally, I made a floral headpiece to honor the Winter Solstice.
So you can imagine my delight when the Snapchat flower crown filter surfaced, and became sooooo popular. People started using pictures of themselves in the filter as instagram updates and as facebook profile pictures. They kept saying the same thing over and over and over again.
“Wouldn’t it be great to be able to walk around in real life wearing that flower crown? All. The. Time.”
So, I thought, “Yeah! That would be pretty awesome.”
Then I set out to make my very own Real Life Snapchat Flower Crown. And here it is….
How pretty is that? SOOOO PRETTY, right? I was pleasantly surprised by how gorgeous the finished flower crown came out. When I come up with craft project ideas and start assembling the bits and pieces, I never really know how it’s going to finish up until I see it. And this one wowed even me!
When we had the photo session for this flower crown, I asked my model to bring some crochet tops to wear. We paired this one with the flower crown, and I think it’s PERFECT. Of course, it’s even better if you can crochet your own top, but I can’t crochet so we worked with what we had.
Remember, to get started in crafting, it’s important to just get started.
Don’t worry if everything isn’t totally perfect. Don’t flip out if you can’t do absolutely everything. Do what you can. And have a good time doing it!
If I had obsessed over not being able to make the top myself or held up doing the photos until I could make the top, then you might never get to enjoy seeing this lovely craft project. The real point of this post is to
- Share with you the flower crown itself and
- Show you exactly how I made it.
That way, you can make it, too. Why not wear the flower crown while you crochet (or knit) your top???? There’s an idea!
Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about when I say “Snapchat Flower Crown,” I asked Eugenia to send me a couple of pictures of herself with the filter so I could share those. That way, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and you can see both my version and the filter together on the same page.
Here’s Eugenia in the filtered photos. Cute, right?
But what about the real life version? WOWZA!!
When I started editing the photos for this post, I realized one of the petals in the large pink daisy was askew. In other words, it was totally messed up. I didn’t notice at the time we took the pictures, because there is so much for me to keep track of that I missed it.
That’s the benefit of having a photo stylist on hand to help. They will make sure everything is as it should be.
But I’m doing this all by myself, and in the course of making sure my exposures were good, and I was getting focus where I wanted it, and making sure I wasn’t blocking other people trying to use the park, I missed that petal.
The point is that I almost didn’t use any of these photos, because I stressed over trying to retouch the petal. The retouching looked fake, and it was time consuming. So I decided to NOT retouch it and include the imperfection in all it’s glory. Because that’s life. And we can’t let one little thing completely derail us! Do you like me or my project or my pictures any less because of it? (if you answered yes to any of those questions, this might not be the right blog for you.)
I think the pictures are just too pretty to get caught up in that one misplaced petal. So much talk this week about blogs presenting artificial worlds to people where everything is curated perfection and happy all the time. Just one problem with that. Real life isn’t sunshine and chocolate covered bons bons every minute of every day, so I decided to include the pictures just as I took them.
I think the secret to enjoying your craft projects (and even your photography) is to just get over perfectionism! Use your pictures, enjoy your projects, and show them off in all their imperfect glory.
Because we are people and not robots. And people can sometimes make mistakes.
Without further delay, let’s talk about how to make this gorgeous flower crown.
Here’s what you need:
- A glue gun
- Scissors
- Plastic headband, 1.5″ wide
- Bunch of large sized flowers. I used the pink Gerber Daisies. They mimic the big pink flowers.
- Bunch of medium sized flowers. I used the Dahlias. These mimic the medium sized pink flowers.
- Bunch with small flowers and greenery. These mimic the yellow flowers and the greenery.
And here’s what that looks like:
The next thing I did was to pull the flowers I wanted to use off the stems and laid them out in a row to decide where I wanted each piece to go. Since I was setting this up to resemble the Snapchat Flower Crown, I pulled up a series of pictures on Google images on my iPhone to see what it looked like. I added the white daisy from some other flowers I already had just to give it something extra.
Here’s the step-by-step instructions to make this flower crown:
- Pull the flower heads off the stems.
- Lay the flower heads out on a flat surface and arrange them until you have a design you like.
- The next step is to snip the piece on the back of the flower so your flower can sit flush to the headband.
- Use a ton of glue from your glue gun on the back of the flower and set in place on the plastic headband.
- Hold gently but firmly in place to a count of 20.
- Place the large flowers first, and then fill in with the smaller ones.
- For some of the yellow flowers, I left the stems on. I put the hot glue onto the stems and slipped the glued stems in between the large flowers. That way, the smaller yellow flowers would peek out from the larger ones.
- Put your flower crown over the back of a chair so it can dry for at least 30 minutes. The glue needs time to dry.
Then try on your gorgeous new headpiece and take a selfie! Here’s mine! I’m sharing this, because I’m not very good at selfies, and so you understand why I prefer to take my pictures of other people wearing my stuff! I also realized once I put this on and took that first picture that the piece of greenery on the bottom was too much. So I trimmed it back with the scissors.
Here’s what the finished flower crown looks like from the side. This way you can see how the pieces are glued on. I love making my flower crowns on plastic headbands. They will sit up on the head or they can tilt forward as in these pictures. It stays together really well. Plus it’s the easiest way I know of to make a flower crown. Having to get wire to twist around into a circle and then floral tape the flowers and stems onto the wire is time consuming. With this method you can actually have a finished flower crown in under 30 minutes.
And here’s how it looks from straight on. I made this thing, and even I’m amazed by how pretty it is!
Wondering what to do with a project like this? Here are some ideas:
- You could wear a flower crown like this to pretty much any summer function and be fabulous. It goes with just about any summery outfit, and can be worn to out door concerts or to dinner in a restaurant.
- It’s also gorgeous in photos, so making something like this for summer pictures makes for a really special prop.
- If your daughter is having a summer sleep over, why not have a selection of silk flowers and headbands on hand for the girls to make pretty summer party favors.
- Hosting a baby shower or a bridal shower? Instead of the usual party games, why not serve cocktails and have everyone make their own flower crowns?
I wound up making this project two different ways. In the next post I’ll show you a second way to achieve the same look, but get a different fit. You won’t want to miss it! I hope you are inspired to make your own Snapchat Inspired Summer Flower Crown! Tag me on Instagram with the hashtag #pattymacknits so I can see yours! If you have any questions, ask me in the comments or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you.
Until then, Happy Summer!
