Exotic Flowers in Boston

I have always loved flowers from a very young age.  I’m not sure when this affair began, but my first baby pictures were always images of me crawling in my mother’s gardens and there’s one when I’m around 1 ½ years old where I’m playing with yellow daisies that lined my grandparents driveway.  It seems that my connection to the piece of the world that “grows” has been a long-standing relationship, one that seems to have blossomed throughout my entire life.  Because of this adoration, I have utilized this in several areas including three children’s tales I’ve written where all contain themes of flowers.  I also cook with flowers, decorate with flowers and often draw my favorites using charcoal.  They are everywhere around me.  Recently, another opportunity arose to express floral appreciation, one that combined two other preferred hobbies, crafting and books!

If you have kids, you’re going to really get into this art project that was shown to me by a children’s librarian.  Using pages from books that were going to be recycled (which is environmentally responsible), I could actually make roses by following only a few easy steps.  Perfect for tiny fingers, this craft is simple to do because the materials needed are inexpensive and commonly found around the house.  There’s also little mess and teaches fantastic hand-eye coordination skills.  The snowy weather is soon approaching, so read on for this perfect indoor winter art project for kids and adults!

Materials:

1. 3 pages of recycled book pages (try to find ones that have bold writing, titles, numbers and pictures.  It will make your flower more interesting looking.)
2. 1 black/brown pipe cleaner
3. 3 green pipe cleaners

   Directions:

1. Cut out shapes from the book pages that resemble petals.  Make them different sizes, using the smaller ones first for the inner bud. 
2. Take the black/brown pipe cleaner and wrap a petal around it, making sure that it curls completely around the stem.  Add more petals as you pinch the stem and the surrounding petals. Continue until they are all wrapped around forming a rose shaped head. 
3. Use one of the green pipe cleaners to secure the head around the stem by tightly coiling in a circle shape.
4. Form leaves and intertwine the last two green pipe cleaners around the stem to complete the rose.

 Suzie works in the children's department at the Westwood Public Library.