presents for strangers - the giving tree : )

i'm starting to realise that my boyfriend is a far better human being than me - last week he presented me with a gift tag for the giving tree (a christmas charity thing where people give presents to orphans), it was for a 7 year old girl. I put together a goody bag of craft things; felt, glitter, pompoms, buttons, pipe cleaners, ribbon etc. (in case she's like me), he chose a girly robot making kit for kids (in case she has a more techie leaning) and i made these:

it's a japanese hair flower head band and a little handbag to match : ) i have a really crafty work mate who makes the flowers and she showed me how to make them...this was my first attempt and i must say i am rather pleased with it! to make them you need to cut out many circles of your chosen fabric (i drew around an obliging wine glass to make them all the same size), then you fold each one in half twice to get a quarter, sort of pleat the ruff edge together to make the petal shape, sew them all together (i did twelve), glue gun a button or something pretty in the middle and vuala! a flower! then just stick it to a hair thing and make a matching bag. i went with a very pink sugar skull fabric - it's possibly a pit punk for a 7 year old, but it's a very cute and girly punk so i'm sure it'll be fine.

(for the bag i machine sewed two sheets of felt sandwiched between two pieces of the fabric together, cut around the edge with pinking shears, hand sewed the strap and zip on to that, and then cut out a zip-pull, thread it through the zip bit, folded it in half and glued it to its self.)