Eggbox flowers

Step 1: Cut Out the Flower Shapes

Start by cutting the cups out of the egg carton. These form the base of your flower petals. Trim the edges of each cup to create petal-like shapes. You can make different designs—round petals, pointed petals, or mix it up to create various flower types. The versatility of cardboard makes it easy to experiment.

Step 2: Add Layers for Fullness

If you want fuller flowers, cut a few extra cups and layer them inside one another. Glue the layers together, making sure to offset the petals for a more realistic effect.

Step 3: Paint Your Flowers

Once your flowers are assembled, it’s time to get creative with color! Use your favorite paints to bring the flowers to life. Bright, bold colors make a cheerful statement, while pastels can give them a soft, natural look. Don’t forget to paint the inside and outside of the petals for a polished finish.

Step 4: Create the Flower Stems

Take your wooden skewers or straws and paint them green, or wrap them in green paper to mimic stems. Once dry, glue the bottom of your flower to the top of the skewer or straw. If you want your flowers to have leaves, you can cut out leaf shapes from green paper and attach them to the stems.

Step 5: Final Touches

Once everything is assembled, arrange your egg carton flowers in a vase or pot for display. They also make great additions to handmade cards, gift wrapping, or wall art.

Step 6: Assembly

After we have a variety of shapes to choose from, we are going to assemble some of the flowers into others to see the various designs we can create.

Step 7: Adding Colour

Once we have created our various designs we are going to paint our petals in red and yellow using the paintbrush and our acrylic paint. I have painted the inside petals in yellow and the ones that are going on the outside in red, but you can paint them in any colour you like.

Step 8: Creating The Stem

We are now going to make a small hole in the base of each set of petals to put the pipe cleaner through for the stem. Put your inner petal inside the flower and then push a pipe cleaner through the middle of the egg box petals to hold it all together.

Step 9: Final Touches To The Stem

Once you have your pipe cleaner half way through your egg box flowers, gently fold the top of the pipe cleaner so that you have a twirl at the top. This will prevent the pipe cleaner from coming out and creates a pretty stamen for your flowers.

Step 10: Arrangement

Once all your flowers are painted and you have put the pipe cleaners in you are ready to do your upcycled flower arrangement.

Step 11: Finale

All that remains now is to find a nice vase and cut up some green leaves to place between your flowers to add colour and body to the upcycled flowers. This means that even in winter you can have stunning flowers on your desk as there is always some green in the garden but not much colour!