My Cheatin' Heart.

I love a good shortcut.  Okay, if I'm going to be honest - I love a good cheat.  I made these sweet brooches the other day...

But I totally cheated.  I did not sew a stitch, or even glue a drop.

So.  Your options are as follows.  You can take the high road and refuse to read this tutorial.  (Good Little Shoulder Angel: "Yes, yes!  Pick that one!")  Or you can find out how to cheat your way to a darling upcycled brooch in just a couple of minutes.  (Bad Little Shoulder Devil: "Do eet!  Do eet!")

Your call.

Here's the secret: itty bitty scrapbooking brads!  You need a few of those, and one pin back.

Find something lacy and flowery, and figure out a design.  Then cut a nice felt shape for the base of your brooch.

My lace flowers happen to be plastic, snipped from a dollar store table runner.  But you could use real lace.  Or floral fabric.  Or maybe a machine-embroidered flower off something you don't wear anymore?  Any two-dimensional flowery thingy.

Step one: poke two brads through the pin back and the felt, and bend them down flat.  (If it's hard to poke the brads through, you might want to make small holes in the felt first - just use a thumbtack.)

Wow!  Are you digging this?

You now have a pin back attached to your felt, and you didn't even have to thread a needle!

Okay, second and final step: flip the felt over, arrange your flower on the felt (nicely hiding the unsightly brads holding your pin back) and do the exact same thing:

And you are DONE!

Yes, yes.  It's cheating, and the evidence is clear.  Here is what the back of your brooch looks like:

Shocking!  Disgraceful!  A shonda!

Do you care?  Who's gonna see it after you pin your brooch to something?  Nobody, that's who!  Just that silly Shoulder Angel.

Ahh, tell her to go to heck.