Recycle: Ribbon Spool Flowers

In honor of Earth Day I will be trying to come up with crafts that reuse and re purpose items we all have in our recycle bins or in our craft collections. I know all you crafty mamas and grand mamas out there must have one or two of these empty ribbon spools laying around. If not, you may want to think about saving some next time.


Here is one of many uses for them! Flowers! Spring has sprung so why not make a bunch of lovely flowers. You can use any materials you like. Here are two examples:

The potted flower I used a large craft stick, cardboard from a stuffing mix box, the petals are Papa King's old business cards, noodles & paint.

Using a box cutter *CAREFULLY* cut a slit in the middle of the spool. Make sure it is wide enough to fit your stick into. Next paint & decorate your flower. I recommend painting the cardboard sheets first, let dry, then cut out leaf shapes & center circle shapes. I used the ribbon spool as my template. One side Lu glued noodles to the center. You could glue cereal, beans, colored sand... We used old business cards to make the petals (not so practical but we have a big box of them so...) I would recommend using cardboard from a cereal box or similar.

Tip: Here is a quick peek at how I set up painting projects for Lu & Em. It is hard to see but the sponge is on a plastic lid. I have the girls use the sponge to dry off their brushes when changing colors. It absorbs all that extra water and you can reuse it for the next project. Learned this when I was student teaching. Much better than paper towels. The margarine container with the hole in it I learned from -- I think -- Ramblings of A Crazy Woman. It stops the brushes from falling in to the container.

Side one: Glue petals down first to the outside of the spool then glue center circle ontop.

The other side just glue circle onto spool. We didn't put petals on both sides. You can. We also painted inside the spool. You could glue ribbon inside.

We also made another one using foam sheets and these cute pom poms. This one hangs from a ribbon tied around the center spool. This was less messy and quick. You just cut out the foam pieces and glue. Lu really liked gluing the pom poms down. The other side we left plain but would look cute if the center of the flower said Spring! or you made several of them and hung them together to spell Spring!

These spools would make great wheels for a car or truck, eyes on a silly mask or sculpture...Let me know if you have another use for them. I have a ton of them!
Parting shot. Lu wanted me to take this picture with her new Tinker Bell (from the Easter Bunny). Well, because fairies love flowers! Naturally :-)