Earth-Friendly Spring Flowers

My hubby and I married young, and as ours was the first wedding among our circle of friends, we were blessed with an abundance of wedding showers – seven, to be exact. And it was at those wedding showers that I first earned my reputation as a tissue paper hoarder. As a general rule, I detest wastefulness, and couldn’t bear the thought of piles and piles of perfectly good gift wrap and tissue paper simply being thrown away. So my guests were forced to sit patiently as I carefully unwrapped each gift, painstakingly sorting and folding every salvageable morsel of gift wrap.

By the time my daughter arrived ten years later, my friends and family were well aware of my gift wrap salvaging obsession. And at each of my three baby showers, a paper-folding assistant quickly materialized by my side. There have been a few giggles at my expense. But I remain proud of my meticulously folded gift wrap stash, which over the years has saved me considerable money while keeping all of that unnecessary waste out of the landfill.

Now that my daughter is an expert gift-unwrapper, there is nothing at all meticulous remaining about my stash. Tissue paper is crumpled. Gift wrap is shredded. But all is not lost! I recently separated out all of the truly mangled bits, and put them in a large box in our craft supply cupboard. There are endless craft projects just screaming to be made. But we started with a simple one, perfect for spring…

You will need:

Construction paper

OR for an environmentally friendly twist, reuse backs of printer paper or empty cardboard packaging

Tissue paper in bright colours (used, of course – the more crumpled the better!)

Crayons or felts

Twigs

Non-toxic craft glue

Tissue paper flowers are so easy to make that even the tiniest of tots can do it. We drew on leaves and stems with crayon, but for a fun and authentic touch, go for a walk and collect some real twigs to use as your flower stems (collecting the twigs will likely be the most fun part of this activity!). If you are attempting this craft with a toddler, or just don’t want your child exposed to all of the chemicals in craft glue, try using my incredible edible craft glue recipe – it really works! Be sure to sit down with your child and join in on the fun of this super simple, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly spring craft activity. Enjoy!