Posted by Originally posted 23 March 2018
Hello there lovelies
Despite me saying goodbye to Winter and hello to Spring in my last blog post, my greeting was premature as Winter wasn’t quite finished with us! Here in the UK we experienced yet more cold, Wintery weather with another flurry of snow! The Spring equinox has been and gone so perhaps now I can say it really is Spring! To celebrate, I’ve come up with a little Spring themed craft activity. This is a great project to do with kids if you so wish and perhaps even one to save for an inevitable rainy day during the Spring holiday! It is also a brilliant way of using up any scrap/hoarded paper.
Materials:
Paper craft straws (this link will take you to a large pack of paper straws. To buy just a few, try your local craft shop)
Green felt tip pen
Scissors
Green tissue paper and/or patterned/coloured paper for the leaves
Patterned/coloured paper for the flowers (I have used a selection of paper I already had including pretty paper from the Mollie Makes mag) and/or adhesive paper (I have used self adhesive hessian)
Glue stick (you could also use double sided sticky tape if your prefer)
Wooden skewer
Newspaper
Craft moss and/or chocolate eggs
Ribbon and labels (optional)
Method:
Cut the paper craft straws to 13.5cm in length. The paper straws I used were 40cm in length so into approximate thirds is fine.
Colour the straw green using a felt tip pen. This will be the stalk of the flower.
Make your templates by drawing a flower and leaves on a piece of paper and cutting out. I drew a tulip shape for the flower. Tip: For both shapes, I folded the paper in half first and drew half of the image of one side so that when cut out, they were symmetrical. I like symmetry!
Using the template you have made cut 4 leaves from your desired paper.
If you are using tissue paper, glue 2 of the same size leaves to each other, then add glue to one tip of a leaf and wrap it around the stalk about 3.5cm from one end so that the leaf points diagonally upwards.
Add the second leaf the same way, this time pointing the leaf upwards on the other side of the stalk.
If using paper with a pattern or colour on one side, glue just over half of the wrong side of 1 leaf and stick to the wrong side of another, so that the pattern is uppermost. Now gently glue the remaining part of the wrong side of both leaves by prising the unglued part of the leaves open. Place approximately 3.5cm from the bottom of a stalk and press gently from both sides, so that the stalk is between the 2 side of the leaf. Repeat with the next leaf, this time pointing the leaf upwards on the other side of the stalk.
Cut out 3 flower shapes using the template you have made.
Turn the first flower over with the wrong side facing up. Using the glue stick, glue down most of the left half of the flower, leaving a small amount unglued at the bottom (we are leaving room for the stalk). Now place the wrong side of a second flower on top of this glued section of the first flower and stick together, matching the edges up.
Next glue the unglued section of this second flower and the unglued section of the first flower and stick the final flower to these glued sections matching all the edges, remembering to leave a little bit at the bottom unglued (for the stalk).
If you do not have a big enough channel to insert the stalk into, use a wooden skewer to gently make that channel.
Glue the top of the stalk and slot into this channel and your flower is done!
If you are using adhesive paper or hessian, you do not need to use glue. Once you have stuck one flower to another as above, place the top of the stalk onto the middle of the first flower, then add the third flower sandwiching the stalk in between in the process. You will not be able to insert the stalk if you stick all 3 flowers to each other first.
Tear up a few strips of newspaper and scrunch into small balls.
Stuff these balls of newspaper into a seed pot up to about half way. Make sure the newspaper is stuffed in nice and tight.
Using the wooden skewer, push a hole into the middle of the newspaper inside the pot. Make this hole slightly bigger using a closed pair of scissors by twisting them around. Now insert the prepared stalk and flower into this hole.
Add moss to the top or fill with chocolate eggs!
If desired, add a ribbon around the pot and a little name label.
I think these will look so good as place settings at your Easter table or perhaps even a treat for kids to find on an egg hunt!
There are so many possibilities with these. You could:
Add more than one flower per pot.
Make the flowers 2D as opposed to 3D by cutting out and gluing just 2 flowers together with the stalk in between.
Make a bunch of paper flowers and gift them to someone special this Spring! I think we’ll do this for my Mum who is visiting us this Easter holidays.
Pop lots of flowers into a jar to prettify a shelf, window sill or dresser.
Try different flower shapes.
Make paper flowers and attach them to a wreath.
I have had such fun making these and can’t wait to make some with my kids. Just like real flowers, they really have brightened our flat up!
This time next week it will be the March bank holiday weekend and the start of the Spring holiday. I am really looking forward to exploring and pottering about if the weather is amenable. I’ll report back here in 2 weeks my lovelies. Until then take good care of your gorgeous selves!
Love always
Lucy
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Lucylu dreams... 