Friday, May 25, 2012

Cardboard Tube Flowers

I love finding new crafts to make with toilet paper tubes! I found a really unique one in the March 2012 issue of Family Fun Magazine that we had to try because it was flowers and matched our theme! The original craft in the magazine was called "Cosmic Cosmos" and you're actually supposed to paint your toilet paper tubes first, but we skipped that step.  Instead we jumped right in with the scissors (actually there was no jumping involved - that would be very dangerous...)

First, cut strips all around both edges of the toilet paper tube, leaving about an inch long strip in the middle.  To help us measure and to give Molly (5) a line to guide off of, I drew two lines around the middle so we knew how far to cut.  I was worried the cardboard tube would be too hard for Molly to cut through, but she did just fine with her little scissors!


After all the slits are cut, fold them all up at 90 degree angles and color them with markers to make your petals.  To make leaves, squish a second toilet paper tube so it creates two creases, then cut it into six or so pieces.  Color these green... or paint them green ahead of time.

Fill the center hole with wadded up tissue paper in a fun color of your choice. Wadding up the tissue paper was a particularly fun step for Molly! Poke a small hole in one side of your flower (in the middle section, between slits) to insert a wooden dowel for the stem. You might want to dab a little glue (or even hot glue like I did) on the top inch or so of the dowel so it doesn't slide around. Finally, glue the leaves on your "stem". I used hot glue to make the job faster and easier.



These make a great decoration to display in a flower pot filled with glass stones or colored sand. I am using them to decorate our holiday tree by just sticking them in the branches and also in a basket filled with a plastic leaf garland. I had so many more ideas of flower crafts to make but now that summer is upon us, I'll be moving on to different weekly themes in my 2nd annual MOMS Camp!! Can't wait!

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