We know school is in limbo, and our world has been rocked with the arrival and contagion of COVID-19. Spring plays were cancelled, graduations were virtual, and birthday parties became drive-by, honking car parades. Although you may not have a large school play or birthday party in the very near future, it will happen again. In fact, small, safer gatherings are happening now. When the time is right (even if it’s next spring) we have the cutest decoration, DIY giant flowers, that costs less than $5 each. We are sharing this spring and summer DIY craft now, so you remember to stock up while they are “in season,” (and store the ones you have) to make these large DIY flowers. It’s easy to do, and adds a dose of sunshine to any space, or party.
Sorry about the ‘non-professional’ photos. This was a quick project in spring 2019, and didn’t think it would be such a hit, so cell phone photos have to do.
DIY Giant Flowers Made With Pool Noodles
Materials:
- Giant tissue paper flowers
- Pool noodles, green
- Industrial buckets, Walmart (they were about $2.97)
- Cardboard
- X-acto knife
- Acrylic paint, green
- Rock
- Card stock, green
- Wood skewer, thin
- Glue, glue stick works fine
- Packaging tape
Step 1: Buy stems, or the pool noodles, from Walmart. Also at Walmart, find the colors buckets that will serve as the “pots” or “planter” for the flowers.
Step 2: Cut left over cardboard packages from all those Amazon packages you’ve been buying. Trace the opening of the bucket on the cardboard, and cut it slightly inside the pencil outline. I find that an X-acto knife works better than scissors when working with cardboard. Also, trace the outline of the noodle in the center of the cardboard circle. This will be where the stems fits inside, so cut it slightly inside the pencil outline as well, so the pool noodle fits nice and snug.
Step 3: Paint the cardboard with acrylic green paint.
Step 4: Add heavy rocks to the bottom of the buckets. We know it’s just a pool noodle and a tissue flower, but it’s somewhat heavy, so you will need something to stabilize them so they are not top-heavy.
Step 5: Cut leaves from green paper (we love Astrobrights Paper), and glue two stems with a large thin wood skewer in the middle. This will look like a “leaf vein”, and also makes it easy to just stick inside the noodle so it will stay in place.
Step 6: Insert the stems inside cardboard cut-outs, and then insert it inside the buckets. They fit nice and snug in the buckets. Fluff some pre-made tissue flowers from Amazon. They come with a string attached, so I wrapped it around the top of the noodle and also secured it with a piece of packaging tape.
Here are a couple flowers “on set” for a spring singing pageant.
