When I got this stand for flowers on the patio I knew I did not want to commit to anymore live plants. The screened porch does not get a lot of light, and I thought this would be a perfect place to incorporate some fun art by the girls. We decided to utilize a bunch of used plastic to create these recycled plastic flowers. Here is how we did it!

RECYCLED PLASTIC FLOWERS SUPPLIES

•Clear plastic found around your home. Cups, bowls, shot glasses, medicine cups, green file tabs (for additional petals – optional) – look for recycling number 6.
•Colorful Sharpies
•Green cloth covered floral wire
•Glue gun
•Scissors
•Recycled muffin liners, Terracotta pots, floral foam, vases for display (optional)

CREATE YOUR FLOWERS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 ºF.
2. Color your plastic items using Sharpie marker. It is best to color them as much as possible. If needed after they cool you can color more on the cooled plastic.
3. Cut slits in the sides of each using scissors. This is where the plastic will curl creating each petal.
4. Place plastic pieces on foil covered baking sheet and bake for 2-5 minutes. Be sure to watch your pieces in the oven, both because it’s cool to see them melt and curl up, but also to make sure you don’t leave them in too long. Each type of plastic melts at different rates so have oven mitts ready as you might decide to grab a few out earlier.

BUILD YOUR FLOWERS

5. Let cool and hot glue gun covered floral stem or floral wire to the back of each flower. For the center of the flower we used caps from baby food pouches, plastic shot glasses, and medicine cups.
6. It was fun to see how each type of plastic melted differently created a different flower!