The Jingle Bud Tutorial! Make Little Flowers From Jingle Bells

It's the most wonderful time of the year: that month when you can buy jingle bells at the dollar store!  (Okay, you can buy them other places too.  So I'm told.)

Why is this wonderful?  Well, duh, they make everything more jingly.  But even more significantly -

You can turn them into flower buds.

They are awfully fun to use in crafting.  Delightful for jewelry...

I love to use them in home decor projects (more about that in another post), and for cute flower gifts like these key rings.

If you try, bet you'll come up with all kinds of cool things to use them for.

The DIY is easy - you can probably figure it out without a tutorial.  But I have a neat little trick to show you, so bear with me all the way to the end - you might decide to do it my way.  Ready?  Here we go.

First the basic technique - this is how I used to make them before figuring out my super secret maneuver.  And it's a perfectly fine way to do it.

1. Use a fingernail or pliers to open out the petals just far enough to jettison the jingler.

2. Grab a petal between pliers and bend it over - as little or as much as you like.

Do it with all four petals and - yep, that's it!  Flower done!

But here comes my awesome trick.  Watch carefully now.

Pop a round plastic bead onto one tip of the pliers.

Now grab your petals (with the plastic bead on the outside) and bend.

The round bead will protect the metal and make a prettier, unmarked petal!  This photo shows what I mean:

A tiny - but interesting - difference, is it not?

I hope you enjoyed this idea!  Perhaps there's a trip to the jingle bell store in your future?

P.S. check my next post for another awesomely adorable idea for the jingle buds!