Make Your Own Custom Floral Children's Shoes and Hair Clip

A few days ago I purchased some rosettes from a dollar store to make some Easter shoes($1.99 Chinese Mary Jane's) and an Easter hair clip; however, the flowers were an icy pink, and I needed a warmer pink to go with my daughter's Easter dress and her tawny complexion.

So I decided to dye them in a drop of red food coloring and about 1/3 cup water. I added vinegar to the water in this project because I think this helps set the dye. I also tipped the leaves with a red felt tipped pen, then blurred the color by dipping them in again. They came out a very nice warm pink. I could have taken the leaves off, but the green that bled into the water added to warming up the pink, and the little bit of bleeding through under the petals looks naturalistic. Actually, the color of these roses remind me of cherry blossoms(one of my favorites).

The water also had the effect of opening and fluffing the flowers which were squished from the packaging. This makes me wonder if this is what you are supposed to do before crafting with these flowers. They are made partially of paper, with just a few fake silk petals.
After they were dried, I hot glued them onto the shoes and onto one of her hair clips. I sprayed gold glitter onto one of the flowers before I attached it on the clip. She has curly hair, so the color of the hair clip will not be noticeable under all the curls.









I'll probably add one or two of these roses to her dress. There is an existing set of roses pinned onto her Easter dress(thrift store bargain), but the colors are not the same, nor are they very complementary. They are darker, one of which is almost maroon(country or English roses).

More ideas:

I haven't tried this, but I bet if you removed the leaves, and dipped the rosettes in some bleach/water you could then try dyeing them yellow. A little spray glitter could give them some glitz.

I also read on a crafting site that those fake flowers with the ragged fringed leaves at the dollar store are still worth buying, just singe the edges with a lighter. This apparently gets rid of the edge hairs, seals the flower, and keep it from unraveling. I plan to try this in a few future projects.

Click on pictures to enlarge.