Marker Monday - Spring Flowers from Toilet Paper Tubes

I love making these flowers in the spring! It satisfies my urge for planting seeds until it actually gets warm enough to work in my garden. The boys and I worked on these this past week. You'll need toilet paper tubes, paint, scissors, hole punch, pipe cleaners, wooden skewers (you can find them in the grocery store), glue and construction paper. Warning: Lots of pictures!
First, paint the inside and outside of toilet paper tubes a variety of pretty spring colors. I love when the boys leave fingerprints on the tubes; it adds some nice texture on the finished flower.

There are two different flowers I make. The first you could call a daisy or sunflower I suppose. Measure 2" from each end of the tube and draw a line so it looks like this.

Then cut the petals all the way around the tube, from each end, all the way around the tube. The petals are about 1/4" wide each.

Then fold the petals up right along both lines you drew.

Finally for the stem add a painted barbecue skewer and accent with leaves and pipe cleaners.


The second flower is a tulip. Begin by making four cuts from each end of the tube about a 1/3 the length of the tube. Round off the edges of each petal, from both ends, to look like this.
One end of the petals can be rolled out.

On the other end use a hole punch to make a hole in about the middle of each petal.

Fold up the bottom petals and put a skewer through all of the holes. Then add paper leaves...

...and pipe cleaners. You may find it helpful to use a little bit of hot glue in various spots to make your flowers more sturdy.

Now enjoy your beautiful bouquet of flowers!!