Recycled Rain Forest Flowers
This contest winning craft was created by Haylie K. from Troy, MI. She enjoys meeting new people online and learning new crafts. Someday she hopes to become a high school English teacher.
Can you believe that these are old nylons stretched over wire coat hangers? Talk about taking something ugly and making it beautiful while keeping the landfill from overflowing.
Supplies
Metal coat hangersSpray paint
Pipe cleaners
Duct tape
Light colored pantyhose, tights, or kneehighs
Instructions
First take your metal hangers (4, 5, or 6, depending on how many petals you would like) and bend them into a petal shape. (I generally just grab the middle of the bar and pull, then soften the corners a bit.)
Next, pull the knee highs (if you use pantyhose or tights, cut them right where the leg begins. You can always cut off the excess later.) over the hangers. You might have to pull on the sides of the hanger afterwards, since the tights pull in the sides of the petals. Twist the end of the pantyhose around the twisted-metal end of the hanger and secure with green duct tape.
Now go outside and spray paint! If you have my luck, then it's probably windy outside and the petals and spray paint will fly all over - you know, to add to the excitement. Any spray paint will do. I went with solid orange for one and yellow with orange spots for the other. It's also fine to accent the petals with sharpie after spray painting.
They should dry pretty quickly. In the meantime, get your pipe cleaners ready. You'll need three per flower - two bent into V shapes with curls at the end and one just in half. For the next few directions, let's call the one bent in half pipecleaner "B"
Put the V shapes one on top of the other and hook "B" pipe cleaner over both.
Twist the "B" pipe cleaner and wrap it around the connected V pipe cleaners once or twice so it all stays in place.
Your petals are probably dry by now, so take each one and bend to a 90 degree angle at the base of the petal. Bend the handle straight down...
...Then in half.
Alright, now either get a friend or get some strips of duct tape ready.
Hold all the petals in one hand with the pipe cleaners in the middle (I like to put the "knot" of the pipe cleaners below where all the petals meet)
Using your other hand, wrap the duct tape tightly around the handles of the hangers. (Alternatively, have your friend attempt to do so without taping your hand!)
Tada! Flower.
Contributor
IT'S A WINNER! Take a look at what one of our talented viewers submitted to share with you. This craft was selected as one of this month's winners to received $50 in craft supplies. Click here to find out how you can enter your original creation for our judges consideration.
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