A cupcake liner flower bouquet in a tape measure vase made from an oatmeal can? Well, yes, infact and though a bit hard to capture on film, it's downright cute. You can't go wrong with cupcake liner flowers! And I was so grateful that I came up with the idea of using the plastic tape measures, since my original idea of using graph paper just wasn't working so well, and infact I tore all the paper off and started over! My kids each wrote a nice note to their teacher which I rolled up and tied with a ribbon, and I wrapped the whole thing up with some clear celophane so that it would get to school intact. Though this was done a bit last minute, I'm really happy that I took the the time to show our teachers how much we appreciate them, and to show our children as well how important it is to show appreciation!
Oh yes, and in case you're wondering, my little boys are just starting their summer vacation today! Which means than many of you can actually use this project for back to school gifts. Perfect timing!
You'll Need:
- recycled cans with smooth sides, I used oatmeal cans
- plastic tape measures in several colors
- cupcake liners in creme, metallic silver and blue stripes
- colored pencils
- floral wire
- styrofoam
- mod podge
- colorful paper plates
For the how-to, continue reading below:
How-T0:
- Using mod podge or white glue, cover the outside of your can with lengths of plastic tape measure. You can choose to line the numbers on each row up as I mostly did, or just randomly place the pieces on the can. Set aside to dry and apply a second coat.
- I made seven cupcake liner flowers for each bouquet. Two large flowers, three medium sized flowers and two smaller ones. Use the cupcake liner flower tutorial here.
- Gather the stems of the flowers and wrap a wire around them to secure in a bouquet.
- Insert pieces of styrofoam into bottom or can, adding small pieces such that the piece is wedged in tightly.
- Insert bouquet into styrofoam, with stems cut to length such that you don't see any wires, where possible.
- Insert colored pencils into styrofoam where necessary to balance the bouquet.
- Make a nice base for your bouquet by combining several colorful plastic plates and gluing them together.
- Send your happy kid(s)off to school, and go back to sleep! Or rather dream of going back to sleep, and give yourself a pat on the back for using your crafting to make others feel happy and appreciated, even if they don't understand your tape measure vase!
