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Giant Flower Workshop
In addition to some quick dry cement and some disposable cups, other items you'll need are: chicken wire, wire cutters, scissors, tissue paper, decorative moss, mod podge (or any craft glue that dries clear and matt), masking tape, steel wire (or wire hangers) and floral wire.
For our Spring window, we had so much fun making these gigantic flowers that we thought we'd share how they were made. A crafting project to keep you and the kids busy for a few hours perhaps?
Great for bringing happiness on rainy days, and a cheery addition to your child's bedroom decor!
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To create weighted bases, mix concrete as per instructions on bag and pour into disposable cups. To create 'starter bars' bend a wire hanger at bottom and place in concrete standing vertically. A little chicken wire will help create a better anchor.
Allow to set (about 2 hours for quick set).
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Decide how tall you want your finished flower stem to be. If you use chicken wire only they with be very floppy, so a little bendable steel wire or plant suports can be used to add some rigidity. Attach by overlapping then wrapping with garden wire. We used tape for a little extra strength.
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Now cut chicken wire using wire cutters into long strips, e.g. 5ft long (for a 5ft tall stem) x approx 18 inches wide. Put base (if dry!) on it's side and form the chicken wire around it. Keep wire looser and wider over the base to make it look less cup-like. Squish the wire to achieve the desired thickness. Take care with cut wire strands, and bend these in to avoid jagged edges.
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Once your wire stem is built stand upright to ensure it's balanced with the right amout of flexibity, height, shape etc. Wrap the entire structure with masking tape, taking care not to wrap too tightly so as to lose the desired shape.
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Once covered the bases should look like this.
Then to get a softer, more natural look, we then covered this structure entirely with a pale green tissue paper using Mod Podge crafting glue.
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Large leafs can be made either using shaped pieces of chicken wire or by creating a wire frame by twisting garden wire to make a leaf skeleton. While the latter is more natural and looks better if the leafs are semi-transparent, the first approach is faster - but you may need to use tape and more tissue paper to hide the mesh effect.
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Now for the fun part. This is where you can get creative! There are many different ways to create tissue paper flowers, but most commonly we just cut out petals and staggered then layer upon layer, glueing each centre. We used tonally similar tissue papers to lend a cohesive feel ...but do whatever feels right for you!
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To affix the flower, poke 2 small holes about 3/4" apart going from the front of the flower head, to the back. The idea is to feed a piece of wire in a U-shape that will be twisted together at the back to hold everything securely in place. This same wire will also be used to attach the flower head to the stem. In the image here the wire also holds a piece of Spanish Moss in place that will look like a stigmas or stamen of a flower.
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To give the flower head a more 3-d look you'll need to flip it over and gather it's lower part tightly by looping it. We used wire with some tape over top, but a rubber band would also work.
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Seperating out each petal by paring these back will help give the look of a real flower.
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Be brave and use different styles and colours.
Using wire, attach the flower heads and leaves to the stems - and there you have it....