I am also really happy because I’ve been invited to present a tutorial about creative recycling, and that’s definitely one of my favorite artistic topics.
There are a lot of recyclable materials out there, but egg carton boxes are for me among the most beautiful and flexible. Today I prepared for you an easy DIY to create decorative flower fairies, perfect for every season – wouldn’t they be cute also in red and white hanging from a Christmas tree?!
To make these fairies you’ll need wooden beads about one and a half centimeters in diameter, beads about half a centimeter in diameter, string or twine, and, of course, egg carton boxes. Please place on your workspace also watercolors and acrylics colours, a thin brush, and a thicker one, scissors in various sizes, and a hot glue gun.
Begin by cutting and painting the carton shapes: one for the hat, two for the rose dress, one, green, for the calyx. I prefer to colour it with watercolours because I find that this particular kind of thick paper gives beautiful shades if the colour is more liquid; if you prefer a more intense and covering result you can use acrylics.
Let the carton absorb the color a little, but don’t wait until it is completely dry to roll the petals: wet paper will be easier to shape, and won’t break. Roll and fix the smaller petals with hot glue, and do the same with the second row. Place the flower into the green calyx, glue and let the flower dry completely.
In the meantime paint the faces: with a small brush draw eyes and mouth on the wooden beads.
Do it so that the holes are on top and under the face: once the job is done the holes won’t be visible anymore.
Prepare the hat by drilling a hole on the top of a cone; then cut four petals out of the sides: two short ones, and two longer ones. When the color is a little less wet, roll the petals to the top, leaving the longer petals a little more down.
Insert the twine through the hole, pass the ends through one of the smaller beads and close it with a knot.
Now that all the parts are ready, glue them together: the hat on the head (with the smaller petals over the face, like bangs), and the rose/dress under. If you like, you can make the decoration more resistant to fixative spray.
Depending on the season and on the room you want to decorate you may want to choose another kind of flowers, colors, and sizes. One relaxing afternoon is enough to fill your house with lovely flower fairies!
