25.3.14

Egg carton flowers for Mother's Day


My little spring posy is based on the roses I made a couple of weeks ago. Egg cartons are great for flowers, and I was thinking this simple arrangement might come in handy with Mother's Day around the corner?

So, if you fancy making these flowers, you will need:
Egg cartons
Pipe cleaners (preferably yellow and green)
Coloured tissue paper
Paint
Glue
Lump of old modelling clay
Yogurt pot


Cut out a few egg cups from the carton for the daffodils, and keep the edges nice and wavy - makes it look more like petals.

Cut some middle cones out too for the crocus/bluebell shaped flower (seems to be a sort of cross between the two!) - use the corners for the petal tips and join by drawing a triangle on each side, like the picture above…

Paint them purple and the daffs a sunny yellow.

Pierce a hole through the bottom of the bells and the middle of the daffs (Best done by an adult - use nail scissors or similar - keep them closed, press down and twist carefully from side to side) Push a piece of pipe cleaner through (roughly 10cm/4in.) Bend it over to hold in place - try to keep the pipe cleaner nice and flat inside the daffs (so it's easier to stick the tissue paper centres here later).


With the bells, we used a longer piece of yellow pipe cleaner and pulled more of it through for the flower stamen, and then folded the pointy end over.



To finish off the daffs, fold a piece of orange or yellow tissue paper (about 10x10cm/4x4in.) until it's a 2cm/3/4in. wide strip - you don't want it sitting too high above the edge of the egg cup - then roll up tightly.


Let them unfurl a bit before gluing the end edge down. Brush plenty of glue inside the egg cups (and over the pipe cleaner middle) and stick the tissue paper centres in place.



For the daisies, cut a 1cm/1/2in. thin strip of white paper and snip into 6cm/21/2in. pieces. Fold them in half and round off the ends.


Open up and use the middle fold to arrange three evenly on top of each other, so it looks daisy-like.


Glue together and when dry, carefully make a hole (with nail scissors as before, but put a piece of modelling clay behind the flower centre, so you have something to push against). Make it big enough for a pipe cleaner.

Wind the pipe clearner around a few times for a fuller centre.


We cut some long leaves out of tissue paper and stuck them on too - the easiest way to do this is to wrap them around the stalks.


Arrange your blooms in a piece of old plasticine (modelling clay) - one of those mashed up, multi-coloured lumps…(make sure you warm it up a bit first, so the stalks go in)


Cut a strip of wrapping paper to decorate your pot - make sure it goes round with plenty to spare (about 1 and a half times), then cut into about 3 or 4 pieces - so much easier to glue on neatly like this! Overlap each piece.
You could tie a ribbon around instead.



Pop in your flowers.