Book Flowers

"When I look into my room, I see a girl who loves books." -John Green, Looking for Alaska

This month for book club, I had my first repeat book from my different clubs with The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  I decided to read Looking for Alaska, since it was another John Green book.  In reading book of these books I saw the theme of characters that enjoy reading and are impacted by books.  Since this is a blog about books, I decided to do a craft using old books.  Flowers are always fun and add a touch of welcoming to any room.

Materials:

• Old Books (you don't mind cutting up)
• Scissors
• Glue Stick
• Hot Glue
• Toothpick
• Pipe Cleaners
• Floral Tape

Directions: 

1. Cut three 3X3 inch squares of paper. (Book pages or in this case comic book pages) 

 2.  Fold each piece of paper in half.

3. Fold each piece in half again. 

 

 4. Fold each piece in half one last time.

5. Cut the top of each folded paper into an arch.  It should look like a tear drop when you are done. 

6. Snip off the ends of the tear drop.

7. Unfold the papers and cut into the following pieces. 
1 petal, 6 petals, 2 petals, 5 petals, 4 petals, 3 petals 

8. Using the glue stick glue the 6, 5, 4, and 3 petal pieces so that one end petal is sitting on top of the other end petal. 

 9. Using a tooth pick roll the edges down.

 10.  With the one petal piece twirl it around the tooth pick, remove toothpick, and glue in place.

 11.  Wrap the two petal piece around the one petal piece and glue into place. 

 12. Using the hot glue gun glue the pieces into each other, fitting the smaller pieces into the larger pieces in descending order. Fold an end of the pipe cleaner over and insert through the center of the flower.  Fold the pipe cleaner in half and twist up to the flower base.

13. Wrap floral tape around the pipe cleaner.

So, If you are looking for a variety on your flowers, here are some options.

With red paint on the edges and purple sharpie.

With torn edges it creates a feathery look.

Brown felt marker.

Original and burnt edges behind it.

Enjoy and keep on reading!

Update 9/1/2014: My little cousin made the flowers with the burnt edges for her fair project this year and received a merit award!