Homemade Jute and Paper Flowers

I saw some of these flowers at our local craft store for $14.99. I thought I would try to make some similar ones myself. I used Jute and brown wrapping paper. Also you need glue, scissors, clothespins, and hot glue.

This paper towel holder worked perfect for holding my sting while I pulled off the pieces I needed.

First you roll the string around in a circle to make the middle of your flowers.
Tip- you need to mash the string flat to the table holding it down with all of your fingers while you
twist it into a circle. Do this BEFORE you put glue on it. (make the paper and crocheted circles the same way) After you put glue on one side using an old paintbrush, carefully clip it with a clothespin for a few minutes until it sets. Then put it somewhere to dry.

These are a few photos of the process. For the paper flowers I put a little glue along the side of the paper as seen and then I carefully twisted the paper into a long rope. Keep dipping your fingers in glue as you twist. The wet glue makes the paper twist without tearing. I used clothes pins to keep the rope tight while it dried.
For the jute flowers, I put jute string (in lengths I wanted for petals) in a bowl of glue (modge podge) and then squeezed off the glue and lay the strings on a tray to dry. (you can make these any size you like)
I crocheted some jute to see how that would look.  First, crochet some chains using the jute and then put them in the glue, squeeze and let dry. After they dry, you can cut them in lengths that you need. After all my pieces were dry, I started to make flowers. (I put my trays in a warm oven and they dried quickly)

Twist the petals and hot glue them to the circles the way you want them to look.  I did all three flowers
the same way. I put more petals on the plain jute so it would look layered. On the back I put a piece
of cardboard and wire so I could hang them. As you will see in the bottom photo, I made some flowers
to put in a jar. Instead of cardboard on the back, I added a stem and put another piece of rolled up jute
so they look good on both sides. These flowers are bendable so you can shape them easily.

You could do so much with these flowers. I love the old timey look of them.
This was a fun project on a rainy afternoon last weekend. And it definitely didn't cost me $14.99.