Our little Oreo Turkeys were such a hit last Thanksgiving that I wanted to find another crafty turkey project to make and share this year. And I found it. I’m so in love with these little guys; and they’re so easy! I found the idea on our good friend Steph’s blog, Crafting in the Rain. Steph is one of the craftiest (and kindest) people I know and always has such fun little projects that inspire me. I made 5 of these little turkeys from 3 cheap flowers I found around my house, so it doesn’t take much! Check it out…
You’ll need a few artificial flowers in Thanksgiving-ish colors. Or not. A neon pink turkey could be cool. I seriously just walked around my house. I had a couple in my craft drawer and I pulled the one below right out of a big fall decoration thing I have. If not,flowers are pretty cheap this time of year at the craft stores.
Pull the flower off of the stem. Then grab the center of the flower (that little brown part) and pop it right out. It should just be attached to the green backing on the other side and they pop out pretty easily.
Now you’ll see that each flower has several layers of petals, just separate them all. These are all from that one flower:
I think it’s fun to use different petal shapes and colors, but you can do whatever you like. They look great with all the same type of flower (in different colors) as well. I got all of these from just 3 flowers.
Also, my little yellow one ended up being hot glued together, which was totally annoying. I still ripped the petals apart the best I could and it worked just fine. So maybe take a peek and make sure you don’t buy any glued flowers.
Now take those layers of petals and stack them. I mixed up all the different types, just put smaller layers on top of larger ones.
Then grab a pair of scissors and cut your petal pile right in half. Take a hot glue gun and put a small dab of glue between each layer so they stick together just like that.
While those are drying, cut some turkey shapes out of brown felt. I just free-handed mine, so they’re all a little different. But c’mon, what turkey family all looks alike?
Then just glue your little turkey guy right onto the petals.
Almost done! The only other thing you need is to glue on a tiny little orange felt triangle for a beak and googly eyes if you want. They look cute without eyes too. Googly eyes instantly make anything you put them on appear deranged. And I sort of like that. I tried to do wattles, but I couldn’t get them to look just right so I scrapped that.
And now, darling little turkeys…what do we do with all of you? Well like Steph did, you can put them on napkin rings.
You could glue them to cheap ones, or I thought her idea of covering cardboard rings (save a paper towel tube!) with burlap was smart. Or you could fake it just for one meal and use sticky tack or something.
Or glue a little clip on the back (like the little silver ones that are popular for fabric flowers) and clip it on a bag or box of goodies for giving (or even a little girl’s hair!).
You could also put it on the front of a card, or glue a magnet on the back and pop it on the fridge.
Or here, I took a little wooden block and attached a clothes pin to hold a place card. If you have time to be super crafty you could stain, paint, or modge-podge both the block and the paper clip for extra cuteness.
If you get all of the supplies ready, this could be a fun project for kids (use elmer’s glue instead of hot glue). Thanks to Stephanie from Crafting in the Rain for the fun idea, make sure to go check out her blog for more crafty fun! (Like, for reals. Do it. Now! And then someone make me this knock off Pottery Barn pillow and mail it to me. Okay? Okay.)
Flower Turkeys
From Steph of Crafting in the Rain
Ingredients 🙂
silk flowers
scissors
felt in brown and orange
optional: googly eyes
optional: napkin rings, clips, clothes pins, magnets, etc.
Instructions:
Remove flowers from stems. Separate center of flower from back and separate all petals. Stack varying petals together, stacking smaller on top of larger. Hold stack together and cut pile in half across the middle. Glue layers together. Cut turkey shapes out of brown felt and glue onto front of petal piles. Glue on small orange triangle for beak. If desired add eyes and attach a clip, clothespin, or magnet to back.
Questions & Reviews
I’m so making these for little favors on the Thanksgiving table and my kids’ friends! Making a midnight run to Wal-Mart now.
If I do get the itch for that darling poinsettia pillow and happen to feel extra giving, what color pillow would you like? 😉 No, but, for real…
Thank you! I will be honest. I have what I refer to as “craft phobia.” I saw these on the blog & thought “I think I could actually do those.” I love that I got it done in an evening and one of my son’s naps (and that was 50 of them). Glued them to magnets for all of the young women in our church. Thank you!
My girls and I made these into pins tonight for teachers, neighbors, Thanksgiving host, etc. We love them. Thank you for the idea!
I made 16 for a kindergarten class. Put magnets on the back for the fridge and then I used a small glue dot and stuck them to popsicle stick to be first used to decorate their cupcakes. Love them!!!
Those are awesome! Pinned! 🙂
LOVE this idea!! I was just looking for something crafty and Thanksgivingy (yeah, I just made that word up!) to do with my son tomorrow!
Oh My Goodness, these are just adorable and so easy. I’m going to be doing them with my third graders. They will love it. Hopefully they can share it with their parents and maybe make the place settings for Thanksgiving dinner. What a great idea, thank you!
Those are adorable! I am definitely going to use that idea! Thanks!
Nat
crafting-cousins.blogspot.com
I bought some cute orange and yellow gerbera daisies at 80% off today and made these. I added feet and the little gobble thing and they turned out so cute. I thought of a super easy way to get them to stand up–I hot glued a clear marble on the back towards the bottom. It worked so good and they look like they are standing up on their own! Thanks for the idea!
I would suggest a low heat glue gun…those googlie eyes are tiny! You know, to save fingers!
The marble is a great idea!
This is adorable and brilliant at the same time.
I just made these for all the little girls in my daughter’s preschool class! I turned them into hair clips. they were extremely easy and turned out so cute…deranged googly eyes and all! 🙂 thanks
I’m thinking Nutter Butters would make the perfect template for the turkey body….craft time and snack time all in one! 😉
Scored my flowers for $.79 a bunch(so I bought 5)!!! Wohooooooo!! Got googly eyes, brown foam (thought it would be sturdier than felt), orange felt and clothespins for less than $10!!!! Can’t wait for tomorrow night when I can have some Mommy time and make these! 🙂
These are DARLING! I think we’ll have to try.
Pinned to Pinterest! So pretty and so cute at the same time! I love it!!! Thanks!
So cute!! My 8 yr old was standing over my shoulder when I was scrolling through the post and says ‘that’s cool they made new flowers’ then we got to the part of cutting in half and he was kind of curious. When we got to the photo of the finished turkey and his eyes got big and he says “It’s a turkey!!” We’ll definitely be making some of these. Thanks for sharing!
These are adorable!
We actually made the same thing using different colored construction paper and a cut toilet paper roll for the napkin ring, covered the ring with paper and glued the turkey to the ring. We love them and use them every Thanksgiving….
LOVE it! I totally just found 3 flowers in my decorations and cranked out 12 turkeys during naptime! I also used some brown thin cardboard I found since I didn’t have felt and glued on a big wooden bead to make them stand up. Too fun. I love, love, LOVE your blog – SO many great ideas – thanks so much!
I just discovered your site (I know, I am late to the game) and I’m really excited about trying some recipes from here. I’m planning to make the creamy chicken taquitos in the next couple of days. I have one question- I’ve noticed that some recipes can be printed, but some can’t. I’m just curious as to why this is, or maybe I’m missing a button somewhere or just confused. Anyway, I just had that one question and wanted to say thanks! It is nice to find a food site with recipes that are easy and quick and stuff my family will actually eat rather than fancy stuff that is complicated that none of my kids will eat anyway!!
Elisabeth
These are so cute! I love all the possibilities for these festive turkeys! I also love how easy these are and the minimal supplies needed!
Do you think they would stay together without hotglue? Thinking maybe tacky glue or fabric glue? Would LOVE to do these on Thanksgiving day with all the kids but some of them are kinda young? Love the idea of a hot pink Turkey too! My niece is going to love that! I’m going to the dollar store to buy the flowers today!
HA just read the last sentence over again oops! Thanks answered my own question! lol!
I tried the tacky glue and it didn’t work for me, and it leaked/seeped through the felt. I even tried superglue before I did the hot glue, and that didn’t even hold!
I love that you attacked the clothes pin.
So cute! I love it!
someone needs to put that on a clip and in a little girl’s hair. SO cute!
Oh yay! Thanks for sharing these Sara! Yours turned out so cute too–I love them! Also, I know you don’t have any girls (yet 😉 but I made two of these into clips for my girls, and I must say they look pretty cute in ponytails.
How clever and darling, these are just soooo cute!
Those are so darn cute. Too bad we’re traveling instead of cooking this Thanksgiving.
Yay!! I was looking for a quick craft for the girls to do for part of mutual tonight and I think I just found it. Thank you! Love it. Also. . .my husband is just as excited about this whole turkey brining business as I am. It’s going to be awesome.
How fun, these are so cute!
This is so creative! Love this idea.
What a cute idea! The grandkiddos are going to love doing this. Thanks for sharing.