The next item on our list of free stuff is egg carton roses. These are simple to make and delightful to have in your stash of materials to have on hand for future projects. Here's what you do:
Buy eggs in those gray cardboard cartons. Remove the top of the carton and the part that attaches to it to keep the lid closed. Save these for another project (I use these for bricks for dollhouses and fireplaces). The bottom layer of the carton is all we are interested in right now.
Cut the center, pointed pieces out with a scissors. These are your flower centers. Now cut each triangle piece out from the outside edge, between each egg cup. There is also one triangle piece on each end of the egg carton. Cut those out too. Cut the remaining pieces that hold the cups together. Once all are cut out, you should have 12 cups.
These cups will make your roses. You will use three cups per rose. Now is the time to fire up your hot glue gun.
Take one of the egg carton cups in your hand. You will be cutting this cup down to the base, but not all the way so it is in pieces. You are cutting so you have four petals. This is not rocket science here-just divide the cup up into four sections and cut accordingly. Once you have four sections, you will round the sections to make them more petal like. I prefer to remove as little of the cardboard as possible, since I stagger the layers for fullness. I also spread the petals open a bit-it doesn't matter if they crack, or even crack off completely-they will be fine. Just keep your pieces together and I'll show you what to do about cracks and broken bits...You cut and shape all the cups, until they are all cut into four shaped petals.
Now you can either paint your pieces, let them dry and then assemble-or do what I do, which is assemble them and then paint them. I'm onto assembling.
Take three of the cup/petals. Layer them so they have no openings showing, in otherwords where each cut is there is a split. Lay the next cup/petal over that split, then the last cup/petal over the middle split. I also pay attention to the height of the petals. I try to make the flower as even as possible, which might mean some trimming. Make sure you are happy with your layers before you start glueing them down.
Once happy, place a gob of hot glue in center of bottom cup/petals and press second layer onto it. Hold until secure. Put gob of glue on second cup/petal and place third cup/petal on it and hold until secure. Take square from the center cut from earlier and glue to center of top cup/petal. Hold until secure.
I paint mine white with gesso or primer. I've added pink beads in the center of the top square for some color. You can paint them any color you wish. Because they're white, I can repaint them any color I wish once I decide what I'm going to do with them. They are lovely the gray of the carton too. Subtle, but lovely.
If you have cracked the cups/petals or even broken one off completely-just use a bit of water or wet paint (not drybrushed on) and soak where it broke off. The cartons are made of a paper mache' type material and this will cause the stuff to re-activate. It should rebind to itself. (If that's to fiddly for you, just hot glue it back together.)
Here is a you tube video showing the same type of flowers, just a different tutorial. She rips hers and uses all of the carton. These are charming flowers as well. Either of these techniques will result in perfectly delightful, from trash, little treasures! Hope you enjoy making them!
Buy eggs in those gray cardboard cartons. Remove the top of the carton and the part that attaches to it to keep the lid closed. Save these for another project (I use these for bricks for dollhouses and fireplaces). The bottom layer of the carton is all we are interested in right now.
Cut the center, pointed pieces out with a scissors. These are your flower centers. Now cut each triangle piece out from the outside edge, between each egg cup. There is also one triangle piece on each end of the egg carton. Cut those out too. Cut the remaining pieces that hold the cups together. Once all are cut out, you should have 12 cups.
These cups will make your roses. You will use three cups per rose. Now is the time to fire up your hot glue gun.
Take one of the egg carton cups in your hand. You will be cutting this cup down to the base, but not all the way so it is in pieces. You are cutting so you have four petals. This is not rocket science here-just divide the cup up into four sections and cut accordingly. Once you have four sections, you will round the sections to make them more petal like. I prefer to remove as little of the cardboard as possible, since I stagger the layers for fullness. I also spread the petals open a bit-it doesn't matter if they crack, or even crack off completely-they will be fine. Just keep your pieces together and I'll show you what to do about cracks and broken bits...You cut and shape all the cups, until they are all cut into four shaped petals.
Now you can either paint your pieces, let them dry and then assemble-or do what I do, which is assemble them and then paint them. I'm onto assembling.
Take three of the cup/petals. Layer them so they have no openings showing, in otherwords where each cut is there is a split. Lay the next cup/petal over that split, then the last cup/petal over the middle split. I also pay attention to the height of the petals. I try to make the flower as even as possible, which might mean some trimming. Make sure you are happy with your layers before you start glueing them down.
Once happy, place a gob of hot glue in center of bottom cup/petals and press second layer onto it. Hold until secure. Put gob of glue on second cup/petal and place third cup/petal on it and hold until secure. Take square from the center cut from earlier and glue to center of top cup/petal. Hold until secure.
I paint mine white with gesso or primer. I've added pink beads in the center of the top square for some color. You can paint them any color you wish. Because they're white, I can repaint them any color I wish once I decide what I'm going to do with them. They are lovely the gray of the carton too. Subtle, but lovely.
If you have cracked the cups/petals or even broken one off completely-just use a bit of water or wet paint (not drybrushed on) and soak where it broke off. The cartons are made of a paper mache' type material and this will cause the stuff to re-activate. It should rebind to itself. (If that's to fiddly for you, just hot glue it back together.)
Here is a you tube video showing the same type of flowers, just a different tutorial. She rips hers and uses all of the carton. These are charming flowers as well. Either of these techniques will result in perfectly delightful, from trash, little treasures! Hope you enjoy making them!