How to make Flower Bows

I have a little obsession with hair bows. It started when my oldest daughter was a baby. She had no hair and I got tired of people assuming she was a boy. So I started buying bow head bands to stick on her (and hats, she had a ton of hats). The bows got bigger as she got more hair to stick it in.
Then I started making them myself. Store bought bows are expensive, and you can make your own for almost nothing.
I'm now obsessed with flower bows. Again - expensive to buy, really cheap to make.

Here is how I do it...

Buy some fake flowers. I only buy these when there is a 50% off sell at my local craft store.

You will also need a hot glue gun, scissors, a clip and a small square of felt.

Pull the top off one of your pretty flowers. This is probably what the back will look like. (Throw the stem away. I haven't thought of anything to do with them yet...)

Now pull the plastic base off the flower. There will be a little green thing sticking out of the middle of your flower in the back. DO NOT CUT THIS OFF!!! You need it!

You need the little green thing sticking out of the middle of the flower to hold your bow together. The whole flower is assembled around this stick, and if you cut it off flush with the flower, the whole thing will eventually fall apart. (Trust me, I found this out the hard way.) But you do need to get it out of the way so your clip will lie flat. I cut it long ways, right down the middle of the stick.

This is what it will look like. When you get ready to glue your clip on, you will press it flat like this...

I use this type of clip. You can buy them in the jewelry section of your craft store. I buy the big bulk package!! These bows are a little heavy to use with the alligator type clip.

Pull the middle, springy part of the clip out. You'll put this back in later, so don't loose it.

Put hot glue on the flat side of your clip. I use lots of glue. You'll hide it later, so the extra glue won't show up.

Remember the little green stick you slit down the middle? Make sure this is laying open as you press your clip into the back of your flower. Getting that silly green stick to lie flat is the only hard part of this whole project. Press and hold your clip down for a few seconds while the hot glue cools and hardens.

Now you need your little square of felt. It will lay over the inside of the clip to hide your ugly glue blob, so you should cut it as long as the inside part of your clip and about an inch wide. Put a glue line around the edge of the felt.

And press the felt over the inside part of your clip.

Now you put that little springy part of the clip back in. (Sometimes some of your hot glue gets in the space that this came out of. It is a pain, but you can just scrap it out with a sharp tipped thing.)

This is the finished product from the back.

And this is the product from the front!!

Now find some really stinking cute little girls and stick this in their hair!!!!

This was my first go at these flower bows.

The girls were very pleased with themselves!!

This is flower bows gone crazy. I tend to go over the top sometimes...

And this is a two flowers version. These are made out of funky burlap flowers I found in a scrap-booking section. I use the big one on the bottom, and a little one on the top.

Got to have one to match every outfit!!

And it never hurts to make a few for your dog to wear on special occasions. (Poor Li Mu Bai.)