Festive Fourth Flops

Time needed: 30 minutes
Level of difficulty: easy
Materials needed: 3 swatches of fabric in red, white and blue, felt, scissors, glue gun, flip flops
Note: The entire cost of this project was $4.25, and I had enough leftover fabric to make at least one more pair for just the cost of flips, which I got at Michael's for $1.

Directions: Cut 18 circles of the white fabric (I used the bottom of a soda can as a stencil), 18 circles of the red fabric (I used the bottom of a hairspray bottle as a stencil), and 18 circles of the blue fabric (I used the bottom of a nail polish bottle as a stencil) and get that glue gun heated up. Start with the white fabric. Lay down 2 circles to be the base of your white flowers. This pattern is very similar to the foursquare flower pattern, so take a look at that if you need more help. Instead of folding the circles in half, fold them in thirds and glue them down. This way, you'll have 6 poofy petals rather than four. After you do this to both base circles, you should have four circles left. Using two per flower, crinkle these and glue them to the middle to continue the poofy petal effect. Follow the same directions for the red and the blue fabrics. (If you wanted, you could mix the fabric colors for a multicolored flower or two.) Then, cut 6 squares of felt to fit the back of the flowers and glue them to the back of the flowers for some extra support on the backing. Take the large white flower and glue it to the thong of the flip flop. Place the red and blue flowers just to the side (or, what the heck, place them wherever you'd like as long as you think it's cute), being sure to glue them to the thong as well. Then, take a few strips of the felt and glue them to the back of the flower and around the backside of the thong to add some extra staying power. And there you go - cute summery flips that are going to be just perfect for your Fourth of July celebration! And, this technique is so cute, who needs those expensive flips you see at the store? You can make your own, feel just as cute, and be so proud of what you came up with. Woo hoo!