Recycled Flowers

My son's school held a Green Event this weekend to raise awareness in our community on being eco-friendly and recycling. So I thought I would share these great paper flowers that I made using a variety of recycled papers, a few embellishments and Nestabilities dies.

I have an old dictionary that I absolutely love to use for projects like this. There is something about the text and the worn and yellowed paper that I find appealing, once it has been inked and spritzed that is! I also like to use pages torn from the map sections of old phone books, tissue paper saved from gifts, and school lined paper & paper with music notes pulled from the recycle bins at home and work.

I have this huge collection of mismatched buttons, you know, those extra buttons in little packets that come with most new garments, and buttons that I have been saving for who knows what. For years I have been putting these packets and loose buttons in a box and decided to repurpose them since I realized that I no longer even have the clothing that most of them belong to or were intended for anyway. I think they make the perfect centers for these flowers.

I made this one into a pin. I simply used hot glue to attach a piece of felt to the back and then added a pin back. I gave the flower a light coat of crystal clear glaze to make it a bit more sturdy.  

These flowers were inspired by Donna Salazar and a detailed video tutorial can be found here. I hope you give it a try, they are super easy to make and are a good way to reuse a variety of papers. I also think they look great used on a gift instead of a bow, even cuter if the gift is in a recycled paper bag or wrapped with recycled paper!

Paper flower embellishments, crystal clear glaze and Nestabilities dies are all available through my A Muse Studio website!

Thanks for visiting!

~ Julie D.