Gather your kids’ old artwork or any scrap paper you have to make beautiful paper strip flowers.
I like to find ways to reuse items as much as possible.
This last winter/spring, my two girls suddenly became very, very into drawing and coloring and became art-producing machines.
We have a wall in one of our hallways to display their lovely artwork. I swap out the art every one to two weeks.
The question is… what do we do with all that used construction paper?
I can’t save every scrap of paper they draw on. I’ve set aside some of their more memorable ones (like first scribbles, first smiley face, etc.) and I’ve taken pics of the wall of art on occasion.
One activity we came up with to reuse old artwork was to make paper strip flowers!
This simple kid’s craft is perfect for spring.
Also, Mother’s Day is just around the corner, and this would be a great craft to make for all the special mothers and grandmothers in your kids’ lives.
How to Make Paper Strip Flowers
For this craft, we used the following supplies:
- recycled construction paper
- white construction paper or cardstock
- yellow paint
- cardboard circles
- glue
- scissors or paper cutter
Step One: Make Paper Strips
I used a paper cutter to make 1″ strips with our 9″x12″ construction paper.
Cutting paper into strips was extremely cathartic, so I just let myself go and ended up with a huge pile of 1-inch strips.
The 1-inch width was the perfect size for us, but you can play around with the size of the strips for different effects, if you like.
Step Two: Paint the Cardboard Circles
Just to show you how much of a saver I am, these little cardboard circles are from an Easter egg-dying kit we used earlier this month. The kit came with pre-punched holes that you can put your eggs in after coloring them, and I saved the circles that you punch out.
We used a foam brush and yellow washable paint to paint the circles.
Step Three: Make The Flower
I drew a circle on a blank sheet of paper so Elena (age 4) knew where to glue the paper strips.
She used a glue stick to glue on a strip of paper that she folded over to make each petal.
This is the fun part. Glue as many or as few paper strips as you want on there to make the flower more full.
I used 16 strips of paper, so my flower is very full.
Elena ended up using 9 strips of paper total to make her flower.
Why nine? Because she wanted to make a petal with each color of paper we had.
Step Four: Glue on the Flower Center
Those cardboard circles should be nearly dry now.
Glue one over the center of your flower to hide the paper strip ends.
Admire your finished paper strip flower craft!
What to Do with the Finished Flowers
Ours are currently hung on the fridge.
Elena wrote her name on the ones she did and wrote her little sister’s name on the one Lia attempted to do. (She glued one paper strip onto a sheet of paper before commandeering the foam brush and painting her paper all yellow.)
The big flowers are really pretty hung up. You may need to glue the top ones down a bit more so they don’t flop over.
As I said earlier, Mother’s Day is coming up soon. Write “Happy Mother’s Day” at the top or bottom and gift these flower creations to all the moms you know.
Then they can figure out what to do with them.
Will You Make a Paper Strip Flower?
This is a great way to recycle old artwork and make new art out of it, too!
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