You'll need:
Toilet paper tube (or part of a kitchen paper tube)
Red paper (or colour of your choice, or paint plain paper)
Craft scissors
Glue stick/craft glue
Green paint (or mix blue and yellow)
1. Paint the outside of the tube green, plus as much of the inside as you can too (you will see the inside part when you cut the leaves).
2. Once the paint's dry, press the tube flat-ish, near one end, to make two creases either side, and press these creases, so you can see them.
3. Then, line up the creases you've just made in the middle, and press the sides together again to make two more creases (see pic below).
So you end up with four sort of evenly spaced creases (and the top of the tube looks more square).
4. Cut along these creases to about two thirds of the way down the tube. It doesn't matter if they're not exactly the same length.
5. To make the stems, cut down the tube, roughly1cm to the right of each of your original four cuts. Again, they don't need to be perfect, as long as they're roughly the same width, and thinner than the pieces of card between the stems (these are going to be the leaves).
5. Bend the four wider pieces out, and cut them into a long, leafy triangle shapes (cut down from the middle to the bottom corners - see pic)
6. For the flowers, make a small heart template (roughly 4-5cm high), by folding a thin piece of card (or paper) in half, drawing half a heart on the fold, cutting out and opening it up.
7. Draw around your heart on the coloured paper you've chosen (if you don't have any, paint some plain paper). You will need 8 hearts.* You could make them two tone tulips, with two different colours.
*TIP: For younger makers or for a more speedy project, simply cut out four hearts and glue them to the top of the stems. This looks lovely.
8. For a more 3D heart tulip shape, snip half way down the middle of four of the hearts, dab some glue (or use a glue stick) on the top of the stems, and stick these four hearts in place, so the bottom of the cut is just above the end of the stem. Leave to dry.
9. When the glue has dried, cut half way up the other four hearts (from the point) and slot them on.
We didn't bother gluing them, but you could carefully add a little dot of glue with a brush, at the bottom of the slot, on the back of the heart that's attached to the stem. This would help to hold the hearts in place.
You could tie a bow around the bottom, to finish off your posy - or, pop it into a yogurt pot 'pot'. Stick pieces of wrapping paper on the pot to cover up any writing.
But I think they make a sweet gift as they are.
