Hot Glue Flower Lights
by PineapplePinupDesigns in Living > Decorating
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Hot Glue Flower Lights
Create a beautiful, yet simple, light up decoration using only hot glue, a strand of lights, and some odds and ends laying around your house.
These flower lights are sure to brighten anyone's day!
Materials & Supplies
Materials:
· Battery Powered LED Lights
· High Temp Glue Gun
· High Temp Glue Sticks
· Low Temp Glue Gun
· Low Temp Glue Sticks
· Parchment Paper
· Scissors
· Rolling Pin (or any heat resistant cylindrical object)
· Nail Polish (optional)
· Toothpicks (optional)
Creating Flower Petals - Part 1: Gluing
To create the flower petals, use the High Temp Glue Gun/Glue Sticks. Make sure the glue gun is preheated to ensure that the glue flows easily and does not cool too fast.
On a piece of Parchment Paper, squeeze out a generous size blob of glue. I used 3-5 trigger pulls per each petal, varying amount of glue used each time to achieve a vast arrangement of finished sizes.
*OPTIONAL* - Coloring Flowers
If you’d like to color your flowers, while the glue is still hot drip numerous drops of Nail Polish on top of the glue. Working quickly, use a Toothpick to swirl the nail polish into the still warm glue.
Creating Flower Petals - Part 2: Rolling
Continuing to work quickly, fold the parchment paper in half, covering the glue blob. Then use a Rolling Pin to flatten the glue into a petal like shape. Be careful as to not push too hard while rolling out the glue, because you do not want the petal to be paper thin. The circle/ovals/shapes for the petals do not have to be perfect as they can be trimmed to size later.
Creating Flower Petals - Part 3: Repeating
One the glue has cooled, peel the petal off the parchment paper.
Repeat this process until you have created your desired number of petals.
You can be as creative as you wish when is comes to size, shape, and color of your petals.
*Note: Each flower is made up of 5-12 different sized petals. The amount of petals used per flower depends on the desired finished size of each flower.
Assembling Flowers - Part 1: Organizing and Trimming Petals
Organize hot glue petals by color and by size. I stacked my petals with the smallest of each color on the top and the largest on the bottom, gradually increasing in size.
Once organized, polish the petals by trimming off any excess glue imperfections. Do not cut off too much, as you want each petal to be unique, much as natural flower petals are.
Assembling Flowers - Part 2: Attaching the Petals
To assemble the the flowers, use a Low Temp Glue Gun/Glue Sticks.
The low temp glue gun is crucial, as you do not want to remelt the glue used to make the petals while assembling the flowers. If the glue becomes too hot, simply unplug the glue gun and wait for it to cool a bit before resuming.
Start with the smallest petal and form a tight cone shape, leaving a hole at the bottom that is large enough to fit your lights snuggly. Dispense glue on the the inside of the petal, close to the edge. Roll the petal to the glue edge, adhering the petal to itself to hold the cone shape. This petal is now the center of the flower.
Continue to glue petals to the center petal to form a flower. The petals closest to the center of the flower should be the smallest and those on the outside of the flower, the biggest.
Add as many petals as you wish, to achieve the desired flower size and shape.
Assembling Flowers - Part 3: Keep on Gluing
Repeat the above step until you have assembled your desired amount of flowers.
Prepping Light Strand
Once your flowers are assembled, it is time to prep the lights. I twisted together three (3) lights for each flower to ensure the flowers were bright enough. I also skipped a light between each of the prepped flower placement spots to add some more glow to my flower light strand.
Attaching Flowers to Light Strand
Insert lights into the bottom center hole of each flower. Using the low temp glue gun, attach light strand to the flower. Repeat for each flower. Make sure the hot glue is dried and cool before moving/hanging the light strand.
Congrats on your awesome new home decor!
These flowers are sure to light up any room!