How to Make Spoon Flowers (Plastic Spoons)

I'm so excited to have Chaney from May Richer Fuller Be here today. You may recognize her blog title...I've featured her work here several times and decided to invite her to share a guest post while I'm out of town. Today's craft is fun and super-cute...learn how to make flowers from plastic spoons!

Please welcome Chaney to the blog!

******************************

Hey y'all, I'm Chaney from May Richer Fuller Be and I've got a fun little craft project to share with you today.

What do you get when you mix plastic spoons, candles and a little craft paint? Why, spoon flowers of course!

Ever since stumbling upon this idea at Sharon Berry Design (man, that lady's talented!), I've been itching to make my own and share them with you. Sharon's are really spectacular, so you should definitely take a look. These are reminiscent of those gorgeous Anthropologie vases with ceramic flowers that I love, but don't necessarily want spend my pennies on.

This little project is a great alternative and just as pretty! Today I'll show you how I made mine, and I promise after we're done, you're going to want to make some of your own.

Supplies needed:

• Plastic spoons
• Candle
• Lighter/matches
• Hot glue gun (optional)
• Acrylic craft paint or spray paint
• Paint brush

Step 1: Light your candle and grab a plastic spoon.

Hold the spoon an inch or two above the candle, moving it around to distribute the heat as it warms up and starts to melt the plastic. After a few seconds, you'll notice that it'll start to bend, wrinkle and curl up.

It'll start to resemble a flower petal. While the plastic is still warm, it'll maintain its pliability and you can (CAREFULLY - it's hot!) mold it a little if it's not quite the shape you like.

Step 2: Detach the handle from the bowl of the spoon.

I'm sure there are many ways to do this, but I actually found the easiest way to break off the handle was to melt it. Hold the handle over the candle in the area you want to break it off. Once it starts to bend and melt, twist the plastic so you can take the handle off. It'll break fairly cleanly and you don't have to worry about cracking the "petal" you just made.

Step 3: Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you have enough petals to make a flower. (I used six petals for each flower.)

Step 4: Attach your petals to one another to form a flower.

You've got two options here to form the flower: melting more plastic, or using a hot glue gun. I used the former method, but the latter is probably easier (ha!).

I had to use both hands for this part, so I didn't take any photos, but the basic process for attaching the petals to one another is to hold the handle end of the "petal" over the candle until it melts and becomes "sticky." Take a second petal and stick its handle to the end of the one you just melted. The melted plastic acts like glue, and hardens up in a few seconds. Those petals are officially stuck! Continue this process until you've formed a six-petaled flower.

This part took a little bit of artistry and finesse, but I found it worked really well once I got going. There's no wrong way to form the flower - just keep adjusting it until you think it looks right!

Step 5: Paint 'em!

I used yellow and hot pink acrylic craft paint to paint these guys (and left one the original clear). If you want a more polished look, I'd use high gloss spray paint. I liked the matte, imperfect paint look, so I went with that.

It took about three coats of paint to get the coverage I wanted. Make sure you let each coat dry before painting again. I got impatient and tried to paint faster, and it didn't work very well!

Step 6: Attach a flower to a vase.

I bought a bunch of beautiful ranunculus at Trader Joe's and put them in a clear vase. Let's just admire the beauty of these flowers for a moment, shall we?

Ok, back to step 6. Attach a flower to the vase using a dot of hot glue. 

All done! Admire your handiwork and pat yourself on the back for a job well done.

And here are a few bonus photos...I thought they turned out so pretty I just had to take a few more :).

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and eye candy. Now go get yourself some plastic spoons and get crafting!

Big thanks to Amanda for letting me share this little project while she's away on vacation!
*****************************

A-dorable! Thanks for sharing, Chaney!

You must stop over to visit May Richer Fuller Be. Chaney is a wonderful stylist, and her photos are always so lovely! You're sure to be inspired!

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful, I hope you'll click your "Pin It" button to add this post to Pinterest, or a +1 for Google+. And I always appreciate kind comments.