Cup Flower

So, I've been planning and preparing for my sweet baby's 1st birthday party, and I was kind of stuck when it came to decorating the tables. I didn't want to spend too much money, but I wanted it to be cute and fun, and I'll admit it - a bit over the top. I cannot explain where the idea for this came from. I'm sure I'm not the first person to attempt it, but I must say it came to me in a rather excellent moment of inspiration. I knew I wanted something flower like since I've got a butterfly/garden type theme going on. It needed to be cheap and require very few materials. I was trying to find a place to store the massive bags of cups I bought for the party, and it just came to me. So let's get started, shall we?
You'll need:
A plastic cup
scissors
1 brad
1 straw
Small hole punch
Decorative paper (optional)
Glitter paint (optional)
Small piece of foam
Tin bucket
Easter grass or other cover-upOk. So you take your plastic cup and cut slits all the way around. I did some with 8, like this one, and some with 6 wider strips for variation. *You'll only cut to about a 1/2" from the bottom of the cup.Fold the strips out and crease them down by the bottom of the cup so they stand out. At this point I cut a 1 1/2" circle out of some leftover paper from the invitations and glued it in the center. Place the bottom of the cup down on a cutting mat and punch a hole right in the middle for your brad. Then take your straw and punch a whole through both sides. I found that turning the straw "sideways" (Does that make sense?) and punching that way makes for a sturdier flower. The bendy part doesn't bend as much if the weight is on the "side" of the straw. As you can see, I layered 2 flowers in this one, but I did some with just 1 that were cute too. Slide your brad though the bottom of the cup and then the straw. Bend the flaps of the brad to hold everything snug and secure. Right after this, I decided to get really crazy and brush on some glitter paint.
Next, I put a piece of foam in a small tin bucket and poked some holes where I wanted my straw/stems to go. Depending on how tough your foam is, it may be easier to poke the holes with some other tool first, and then slide the straws in.





I covered the foam with some of that Easter grass I had leftover from the girls' baskets, and BAM! A super cute flower decoration! I'll post some pics of the fully decorated table on my other blog after the party. Until then, get out there and take it easy!