Flowers are one of my favorite elements of summer. I love to grow them, pick them and even make them as crafts. Keep reading to find out a few of our favorite flower crafts, plucked straight from the archives. These can be made by adults and children, alike. Enjoy!
I’m thinking about starting a column based on doing crafts with my grands. I think it’s a wonderful way to connect, have conversations and do something creative together – when we’re not out creeking, hiking, fishing, looking for mushrooms, shooting hoops or playing tag. So, on a recent trip to the East Coast, my two grandchildren (ages 13 and 11) enjoyed making flower frogs from air-dry clay.
A flower frog dates back to 14th century Japan, as an aide in flower arranging to spread out the flower stems. According to Martha Stewart, frogs were used in the type of flower arranging called ikebana. Stewart writes that the Japanese didn’t invent the name “frog” for them, but that the term evolved throughout the years because a flower frog sits on top of water.
Click here to read the full post.
Whenever I get together with my grands, I like to do crafts with them. We especially like crafts that revolve around nature. For this one, a DIY pounded flowers craft, we also got to add a bit of might. They really liked that part of the process. This, by the way, is an outdoor craft.
Gather your supplies to pound. That might mean going for a walk and picking a few wild flowers, or asking for permission first to pick from someone’s garden, or even – as we did – using Mom’s flowers that had run their course of loveliness in a vase.
We used an old picnic table to pound on, and remember that you’ll need something that will absorb the shock of the hammer or mallet. Also, I’d highly recommend that you put safety glasses on the kids, just in case they get to swinging wildly. (And, a hammer with a claw thingey on the back is probably not the best idea. We tried that with the 9-year old and it still got a bit dicey with the swing.) So, we used an old homemade mallet instead. Also, have everyone stand clear of the pounder. Exuberance and enthusiasm during flower pounding may mean some ecstatic swings.
Click here to learn more about this craft.
As the threat of frost disappears and the sun shines longer in the day, flowers are planted all around the neighborhood. Here is a way to create easy, DIY garden decorations, using common items from your house. Keep reading for a step-by-step instruction for making these Upcycled Bottle Cap Flowers!
Find out more by reading this post from our archives.
Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved to collect flowers and dry them. Of course, when I was a child, we dried flowers the old-fashioned way – between the pages of a book or by air. Although I still dry flowers and herbs by air, I recently found the Microfleur Flower Press, a new-fangled contraption that quickly dries flowers in the microwave. I decided to make mementos, dried flower bookmarks, to help me remember special times outdoors.
Learn how to make these beautiful flower mementos.
Jackie Baird Richardson is an interior designer, editor at The WON and avid junker. Watch for her design tips and occasional crafting ideas, bringing the outdoors indoors. View all posts by Jackie Richardson
