Total Time 2 to 3 hours Ages school-age
Anyone who's lucky enough to have a cherry blossom tree in their yard knows what absolute splendor they display in early spring. Thousands of pink flowers open up and completely envelope all the branches making it quite the sight to see! I'll show you and the kids how to take an ordinary cardboard egg carton and recreate these beautiful cherry blossoms that will never fade away!
by Amanda Formaro
What you'll need
- Cardboard egg carton
- Pink paint
- 5 yellow pipe cleaners
- 12 yellow pony beads
- Medium sized branch
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
Helpful Tip:
The hot glue gun is used at the end of the craft project to help secure the blooms to the branch. It's best if a grown up handles the glue gun, or that parental supervision is provided when a child uses it.
Notes:
If you are pruning your trees, save branches for future craft projects like this one. Otherwise, pick up branches out of your yard that have fallen naturally.
How to make it
1. Remove the top from the egg carton container. There are small knobs sticking up in between the egg cups. Cut those off to use as smaller blooms. Cut each of the egg cups out as well.
2. From the small knobs, cut triangles in each of the four sides to give the knobs "petals".
3. Trim each egg cup and cut a skit from the top of one side down almost to the bottom of the cup. Repeat on the other side of the egg cup, directly across from the first slit. Now find the center between the first two and cut a third slit, and finally a fourth slit directly across from the third. Essentially you are cutting four slits in a cross pattern.
4. Round the edges of each of those four slits using scissors.
5. Paint all of the egg cups and small knobs, front and back with pink paint. Allow them to dry completely.
6. When dry, poke a hole in the center of each egg cup and each small knob using a toothpick or a craft knife.
7. Take 4 of the 5 pipe cleaners and cut them into thirds. Set the fifth pipe cleaner aside for now. Thread a pony bead onto the end of one of the pipe cleaner thirds. Push the bead down by about an inch and fold the excess pipe cleaner over the bead. Now twist that end of the pipe cleaner around the pipe cleaner below the bead to secure.
8. Poke the open end of the pipe cleaner into the egg cup flower and push it through until the bead touches the center of the egg cup. Repeat for all the egg cup flowers.
9. To create the flower buds you will use the small knobs of cardboard. Take the fifth pipe cleaner and cut it into 5 equal pieces. Take one pipe cleaner and bend it about 1/2" from the end. Bend it down so it touches itself, this will create a larger end that won't fall through the hole in the flower cup. Poke the open end of the pipe cleaner into the center of the small knob cups. Repeat for all flower buds.
10. Wrap the long end of the pipe cleaner around the branch.
11. Bunch flowers into groups of three. Ask a grown up to help you or to use the glue gun to secure the flowers to the branch.
