Upcycled Flowers

Flowers are commonly given to show your appreciation towards someone, whether that be for Mother's Day, a birthday, a graduation, or any other celebration. While they are greatly appreciated, flowers, for the most part, are high-maintenance plants. One of the biggest downsides of gifting flowers is that they start to wither and die after a week or two. They need to be watered and taken care of regularly to guarantee at least a week of freshness. So instead of having to constantly gift new flowers, why not make your own that will last forever and best of all, they don't have to be watered!

Before I started this project I used the engineering process to plan how to make upcycled flowers. The first step in this process was defining the problem and the constraints. The problem, in my case, was to create upcycled flowers. The most evident constraint that this project posed was having to incorporate some kind of used materials. This constraint could affect the appearance/function of my project so research was crucial. Which is the next step in the engineering process. After extensive research, I found that I could use plastic and paper to make the flowers. I then proceeded to design my solution and make a prototype. My instructable show the steps I took to make upcycled flowers.

• small plant pot
• lollipop stick (or toothpick)
• glue
• scissors
• paper
• straw
• skewers
• ruler
• paint (optional)

In order to make a flower, first I had to create a design. So I used the CAD program of OnShape to help me design a flower. The stem needed to be 4 inches long and have rounded ends, which is why I chose to use a straw for it. Each flower petal was a separate piece so the measurements needed to align to ensure they could easily be assembled. After some calculations, I had an idea of how big each piece needed to be. In total 6 petals would be needed, the first petal needed to be 3.5 inches in diameter. Each petal after that would be smaller by half an inch. By creating this model on OnShape I used it as a reference to know exactly how big everything needed to be.

After finishing the model, and making sure everything is good, it is time to start cutting your pieces. For this step, I suggest using smaller scraps of paper as you end up cutting off most of it. I, for instance, used a 4.5 x 5.5 piece of paper and folded it diagonally. Then I cut off the excess piece and was left with a diagonally folded square. I repeated this step a total of six times, one for every petal.

The next step was to fold the triangle. I folded the triangle in half two more times and ended up with a smaller triangle. This smaller triangle is the basis for the shape of the petals, so it is important to fold it properly. All other 5 of your triangles should be the small size as this one.

In this step, we are back to cutting. First I cut off the tip of the triangle. This hole will serve as the place where the straw goes through. I then drew a curved line to have a guide on how to cut the triangle. After I finished cutting the triangles, I unfolded them and was left with the shape of a flower. I measured the diameter of each flower. The first one was 3.5 inches, and after every triangle, I would cut them smaller. The diameter of each flower got smaller with half an inch. In the end, the diameters of my flowers were 3.5, 3, 2.5, 2, 1.5, and 1.

In this step, I placed the flower petals on the straw to make sure the holes were big enough for it to go through. I then glued the petals together and was ready to use the lollipop stick (you could also use a toothpick for this). I used it to round out the edges. I placed it under the petals and rolled it up to lift the edges. This gave it a more appealing look and made it seem more realistic.

Congratulations, you have reached the final step! I did some final touches in this step. I glued the flower to the straw and then placed a skewer in the straw to give it more support. You can decide to make as many of these flowers as you'd like. I decided to make three and then placed them in the small flower pot. Although I used colored paper, you could also use white paper or any other type of paper, hence why the paint mentioned earlier is optional. You now have eternal flowers, that you can give to a loved one and remind them how much you appreciate them.