Share the Love!
Turn your trash into a craft with these beautiful egg carton Tulips. This recycled craft is an easy spring craft for the kids to make or Mom will just love getting these handmade flowers for Mother’s Day!
Mothers Day is the Ultimate “gifting” holiday for Moms. Moms loooveeeee a good thoughtful gift like something custom made or personalized with photos! But ya know what else they love…..Flowers!
Flowers are one of the most common gifts for Mom’s on Mother’s Day and don’t get me wrong, I do love them, but they are totally overrated.
They’re expensive. They’re high maintenance. And they don’t last very long. (They do smell oh so good though).
I know, I know, it’s all about the meaning. It’s to say “I Love You”, “I Appreciate You”, or for my Mommy, its to say “Thanks for being you”.
I think I speak for almost every Madre out there when I say that I would like a handmade gift over a fresh bouquet of flowers any day. What do you think? These egg carton Tulips look just like the real thing eh?
This year you can give Mom the best of both worlds…. a Handmade Bouquet!! We love this idea so much that not only did we make these Tulips, but we created some Cupcake Liner Carnations as well.
These can be made from almost all recycled material, and things you may already have on hand in the house. If your too traditional to get on board with the recycled flowers you can always order a fresh bouquet of Happy Tulips for delivery!
Egg carton Tulips make a super thoughtful gift for Mom, Gramma, or even as a Teacher gift or just a fun craft to make in the classroom.
This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a cent more!)
Supplies Needed to Make Egg Carton Tulip Flowers
- Egg carton – 18 to 36 cups depending on how many flowers you make
- Wood skewers
- Paint and brush– We used Purple Iris, Candy Pink, Yellow, and Christmas Green)
- Glue – We use this glue gun but you can see this guide to choose the best glue for you
- Recycled container or vase– We used an empty Crystal Light package, Sharpie, Stencils, and Raffia Ribbon
You could make any color flowers you choose, I think a RAINBOW bouquet would be awesome!
If you don’t have wood skewers, you can use anything that would work as a stem such as a popsicle stick, pipe cleaner, straw, or wooden dowels.
How to Make Egg Carton Tulips
Here are the steps to turn your trash to craft! And remember, all flowers are unique so don’t worry if yours look a little different than mine, and feel free to put your own unique spin on them!
Cut individual cups out of the egg carton
Cut out a mixture of the cups that the eggs sit in, as well as the part that pops up in between each cup. I did about half and half. If you don’t know what I am talking about I am pointing to the in between part in the below picture.
Don’t worry about making them perfect at all, just get them all cut out.
Round off and shape the edges
Now that you have a bunch of jaggety edged cups, you’ll want to cut off and round the edges to resemble the petals of a flower.
The in between cups are longer and skinnier and will create a look of Tulips before they bloom, and the cups themselves give that Bloomed Tulip Petal look.
Fold, bend, and distress the cups to make them more natural looking and easier to work with.
Pair the cups together to make each flower
If you are going to paint your flowers different colors, pair the cups that go together to make the perfect flower first. This way you’ll know what color to paint each.
Once they are matched up, you can bend and mold them into your desired petal shape.
Paint the individual egg cups
Paint each cup inside and out. Be careful not to use too much paint as this will make the egg cups mushy and wet to work with.
Let them air dry for about 30 minutes to an hour until they are completely dry.
Paint the skewers
While the egg cups are drying, paint the wooden skewers green and lay out to dry. These will dry much quicker than the egg cups, so you want to be sure to paint these last.
Glue the individual cups together
Take your paired egg cups, and add a dollop of glue to the inside of the outer (bottom) egg cup. Depending on how you want the petals to be shaped (in for bulb form or out for bloomed) you may want to add some glue to keep them in place.
Poke the skewer through the bottom of each cup
For safety, this step should be left the adults. If you use actual wooden skewers, yes like the kind for BBQing, then you should be able to poke the skewer right through the bottom of the egg cups. Just be careful not to poke yourself because those suckers are sharp! The best way to get them through safely is to push slowly while twisting back and forth at the same time.
Arrange the bouquet in a “Vase”
You can use just about anything to display the flowers, but we kept on the Recycled Craft Path and used an empty Crystal Light container. We used Sharpie to stencil on the “MOM”, and tied a small bow with Raffia Ribbon around the top for a simple look.
Congrats! You just turned an Egg Carton into a beautiful bouquet of flowers!
Mom or Gramma will just LOVE these handmade Tulips! You can make them for Mother’s Day, her Birthday, Valentine’s Day, or even “Just Because”. They would make a wonderful Teacher gift too!
Check out these other Mother’s Day ideas!
Until Next Time…
Stay Crafty San Diego!
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