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…and we are back with another free felt succulent tutorial! (Say that 5 times fast.) I actually created this succulent myself by folding an existing flower shape into fours. Out of all of our felt succulent tutorials, this is by far the easiest. As always, written instructions are below, but there’s also a free tutorial on YouTube here — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F17CQjkNHn0
So this is the deal – I know that these felt succulents are EVERYWHERE these days, but sometimes it’s hard to find free patterns or the instructions they come with can be a little confusing. That’s why I’ve created 5 tutorials on how to craft 5 different felt succulents. I’ve done all the research and trouble-shooting and experimenting FOR you.
All you have to do is stay-tuned to The Crafty Lefty’s DIY Felt Succulents Series to learn how to make these 5 different felt succulents with FREE patterns. Yeah, you read that right. There are SO many free felt succulent patterns out there made by totally awesome craft bloggers. So instead of re-inventing the wheel (or the felt succulent, as it were), when I have taken a template from their site, I’ve linked directly to it so you can grab the free pattern directly from them.
New to the Crafty Lefty’s Felt Succulent Series? Don’t forget to check out the rest of the DIY tutorials below:
For our fourth succulent, we will be using a simple flower pattern that I found somewhere on the internet. I honestly don’t remember how I found it, but I’ve included the template here. Basically, I was experimenting with this pattern, and seeing all the different ways that I could fold a flower to create a different type of succulent. When I folded this particular flower into fours, it ended up creating a pretty cool effect. So, that’s how I came up with this succulent! (My husband swears this looks like a succulent, so if you don’t think so, take it up with him.)
Besides being simple to make, the other reason I like this felt succulent, is that it uses a different construction model. We’ve worked with rolling felt around a base to make our rose succulents. We’ve cut out individual petals and folded them to make our star succulents. We’ve just stacked felt on top of each other in different sizes to make our layered succulent. So, with this cluster succulent, we’re folding felt in fours and then gluing them to each other to create a – you guessed it – cluster. The advantage of crafting your succulents in different ways is that when you arrange your succulents together — displaying them on a wreath, in a vase, or making a faux terrarium with them — it looks more realistic as a display.
Prefer watching over reading? No problem! Click here to watch the full video tutorial.
Supplies: You can either use soft or stiff felt, either bought from Amazon or the Crafty Trinity (Hobby Lobby, Michael’s or Joann’s). You will also need fabric scissors (or any sharp scissors), straight pins, hot glue, and the printed succulent pattern, found here.
1. As with our layered succulent, the nice thing about this pattern is that you can enlarge or shrink it to create different sizes. So once you have your printed pattern, cut out the flower outline and pin it to your felt. Then, take your scissors and cut out the felt flower. [Please note: the picture below shows that I used a felt pattern instead of a paper pattern to pin and trace my flower.]
2. Next, you will repeat this two more times to get a total of 3 flower shapes.
3. After that, take one of your flower shapes, and add a dab of glue to the middle of the flower. Fold your flower in half and hold it down for several seconds to give the glue a chance to adhere.
4. Then, add a dab of glue to the middle of the flower along the straight edge that you created by folding it in half.
5. Then, fold your flower in half again and apply some pressure where the glue is. Your flower is now in fourths, and has a clear corner at the bottom.
6. You have completed your first mini cluster. Repeat the same process with the other two flower shapes to have a total of 3 mini clusters. Now, it’s time to glue them together. Take 2 clusters and match up the bottom corners. When you do that, notice where the mini-clusters naturally line up next to each other and add glue to that side. Pinch and hold the sides of the felt to secure the glue.
7. Take your third and final mini-cluster. Do the same thing and line up the corners together. See what part of the felt naturally aligns with all three clusters and add glue there. Press and hold.
8. You’ve now completed your felt cluster succulent! Feel free to add glue to any areas to form the shape you like. I added a bit more glue to some of the flat sides of the felt so the succulent would stay open the way I like.
9. I wanted to experiment with thin felt so see how that would look, but I’ve previously created this succulent with thicker felt. You can see the difference in the image below. Personally, I prefer the thicker felt for this cluster succulent.
…and we’re done! There’s just one more succulent tutorial to go to complete our 5 DIY succulent series. Stay tuned for the next one!
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