Poppy Brooch for Veterans Day

I wanted to do an appropriate post for Veterans Day and after coming across this post by Oh Happy Day, I knew this was something everyone could make and enjoy! Poppies have been a symbol of war, life, death, and remembrance since WWI, as they used to grow in the trenches and were later immortalized in the famous poem, "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae.

Making a poppy broach isn't hard at all. All you need is:

Red, green, yellow, and black paper
Marker
Scissors
Hot glue gun
Safety Pin

Take your red sheet of paper, fold it in half, fold it in half again, and draw a shell design. I just freehanded it and it came out like this.

Once you've drawn your design, cut out it through all four sheets of paper - this will save you time from having to cut out 4 petals individually!

Once they're cut out, if you have a brooch pin, you can cut through all four sheets of paper 1/2" from the bottom (see below). If you don't have a brooch pin (and I don't know that many people who do), this step is a bit pointless. Doesn't help or hurt anything.

Now here's another trick - take this stack of cut out petals and fold the entire batch in half. From there, you can remove each one and accordion fold one side of the petal and then the other.

Now here's another trick - take the excess paper you just cut and unfold it. Grab two of the petals you just cut out and place them in the middle. From here you can trace around the petals and cut out two more. I know the original post called for 10 petals but I did just fine with only 6.

Now it's time to assemble your flower. Grab three petals and with a little hot glue, layer them on top of each other.

Flip over your flower, grab the other three petals, and glue them in between the openings.

Now it's time to create the stamen of the flower. Now I didn't have any black paper so... I improvised. I grabbed my vitamin bottle, traced around the lid (it's approximately 2" wide), and colored it in with a black Sharpie. If you don't have red, yellow, black, or green paper, you could do the exact same thing with crayons, markers, etc.

After cutting it out, I then made little cuts (about 1/4") all the way around the circle.

With the yellow paper, I cut a 1" circle and made little cuts all the way around it, just like the black circle. Once that was completed, I glued on the black circle and then the yellow circle in the middle of the flower.

Finally, the leaves. The original post said they should be 2" and mine were definitely shorter than that but it really doesn't matter much because you're gluing to the back of the flower. Just make sure the green petals can be seen and glue them on!

All that's left is finding a brooch or safety pin to glue your flower to so you can wear it. I may have gone a little crazy with the hot glue but I wanted to make sure that the pin was thoroughly attached!

And there you have it kids, your very own poppy brooch. Wear it proudly today and be sure to thank a veteran for their service today!

TOTAL COSTS: Free!
As I said, if you don't have red, black, green, or yellow paper, get out some markers or crayons and start coloring.. that's what I did!

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 45 minutes

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
Very easy to make and perfect for such an occasion like Veterans Day!