Recycling Nature’s gifts – sweet pea shrub

Recycling flowers? What a strange idea!

You know – my blog is for paper crafts. A big part of it is how to recycle paper. But how do you feel  about the idea to “recycle” real flowers? Yes, recycling sounds a bit strange, but works.

See how…

Every day when walking into a park or garden, you can see beautiful flowers and leaves fallen on the ground. Some of them are already dead and you can’t use them for anything, so leave them to feed the ants and the grass… But some of the flowers and leaves are drying very well and you can collect them and create beautiful decorations in your home or office space.

I will give you an example about flower recycling with my beautiful Sweet-Pea Shrub…

How it works

You see all the beautiful flowers, fallen on the ground and already dry. For me it is very sad to collect them for composting, so I decided to use them. First I collected the flowers and left them to dry inside the house for 3 days.

After that I chose only the best looking ones, which also still had a small piece of stem.

To create a decoration from real dry flowers you will need some florists wire, soft white crepe paper and water-based glue. And a small soft brush for the glue.

First glue some of the paper on the top of the wire and twist it. This action is important to create a “comfortable bed” for the flower, which will be on the top of the branch. It must be strong and at the same moment, look natural with no sign of the wire.

After that glue the short stem of the flower and twist it again with the crepe paper. My small trick here is to use water with some green paint – to create a very light natural green colour, which will “adopt” the green colours from the flower stems and will look 100% real. Do not use very bright colours. If you are not sure about the colours, add a little yellow or light brown.

Continue to do the same until the flowers or the wire finishes and you will be almost ready.

And your flower branch is finally ready. As a result you have an elegant pink flower branch.

You can make as many as you want and they will be great decorations for your room a long, long time after falling from the bush.

Enjoy!

Craft information

Materials you need: thin florists wire, water based glue, soft crepe paper, flowers from the garden, soft brush;

Time you need: For one brunch – around ½ hour.

For another floral crafts: https://the-paper-heart.com/2017/02/21/home-made-bougainvillea/

If you want to learn more about the sweet pea shrubs – you can check the page of Royal Horticultural Society: https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=464