Wool Anniversary

Monday, my husband and I celebrated our 7th anniversary! The traditional gifts for the 7th anniversary are wool and/or copper. So, I decided to make my husband some wool roses this year. These are made out of wool felt, which is a little harder to find than regular felt (usually made of polyester). I found this wool felt at this Etsy shop, and I used this tutorial to make my roses. I made my own stems using chopsticks and scrap fabric in greens. Here's how:

Get a pack of chopsticks at your local ethnic supermarket, or steal some extra chopsticks next time you order take out at your favorite Chinese restaurant. ;) My husband is Chinese, so we have lots of these cheap wooden chopsticks handy!

Separate the chopsticks.

Apply a dab of hot glue or craft glue to the pointed end of the chopstick. Adhere the end of a piece of green fabric to the chopstick. My scraps were about 1" in width, and various lengths.

Begin wrapping the fabric around, moving up towards the top of the chopstick. If you run short on your green scrap, just add another scrap with some more glue.

When you get to the top of the chopstick, add another dab of glue to secure the end of the fabric to the top. Then, apply hot glue to the bottom of the felt rose.

Secure the rose to the stem... you may have to hold it there a little while as the glue hardens/dries.

Repeat for more rose stems! I made 7 roses in red and white, and glued on some felt leaves. I added a scrap of blue fabric to the bottom of a mason jar for "water". Another good idea that I thought of after I made these roses... for a 7th anniversary, you could glue on some pennies (copper) to the tops of these roses, or just pile them up in the bottom of the jar instead of the blue "water" fabric. :)

I also crocheted a wool scarf for my husband. It's only 20% wool, and 80% acrylic, so it is still more soft than scratchy. He will probably never wear it, as we live in AZ. Maybe we'll have to take a trip to somewhere cold! :)

Wool Anniversary