Beautiful Blooms

Our youngest son was thrilled at our neighbour’s huge sunflowers, thus inspiring us to make some bright and bold flowers of our own!

Materials

• Paper towels
• Liquid watercolours or food colouring
• Containers for your paint
• Brushes
• Acrylic gloss (or diluted white glue or Mod Podge)
• Scissors
• Floral wire or chenille stems
• Beads
• Paper/scissors/ or fringing scissors
• Floral or Washi tape
• Balloons
• Thick paper

We always find a smock helpful too:

Directions

• Don your smock.  Paint your paper towel gently with your watercolour paints.  We found that just touching the brush to the towel worked.

• Leave to dry overnight.

• Once dry we folded our paper towel back up and then folded it in half.  With the fold at the bottom we cut out petal shapes.

• Have an adult blow up the balloon for you.

• Place your balloon in a small bowl with the tie facing downwards and place it in a craft tray to catch any drips.

• Paint the balloon with your acrylic gloss, Mod Podge or diluted white glue where you are going to put your first set of petals.  Gently lay the petals on top and paint them gently, going in a downwards direction.

• Repeat this process going the opposite way.  Layer as many petals as you would like, making sure that the towel is saturated, but not dripping.

• Allow to dry overnight.

• With the help of an adult, use a pin to pop the balloon.  (Depending on your age and abilities, you may be able to do it yourself!) We recommend inserting your pin near the tie of the balloon so it can gently deflate, preserving the shape of your bloom.  Gently peel out your balloon and with scissors, trim away any extra dried glue/ gloss.

• We taped some gold wire to the top of the floral wire with a bit of floral tape.  We then added some fringed paper and beads to form the flower’s centre.  We also added a few beads under the bloom to stabilize it.  Go with whatever you have or like to make the stamen of your flower (such as chenille sticks and beads)!

Purpose

• Getting out into nature to develop one’s observational skills.
• Using a real object as an inspiration point for creating.
• Exploring how to make three-dimensional shapes.

Safety Notes

• We suggest that you wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect your clothing and surfaces.
• Use scissors with care and adult supervision.
• Beads can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.