Recycled Roses

It's not actually the roses that are recycled, it's newspaper and other stuff you toss in the trash recycled into rose decorations.

With nothing but newspaper, cardboard (I cut up an old box) and hot glue, you can make these giant flowers. Add some optional buttons or baubles, paint or glitter, and get creative with it.

Use them to decorate anything you want.  I use these to make my recycled gift bag.
The only additional materials used for this are paper twist and 2 grocery store bags.

Hint: if you find a store that uses plain brown bags or bags with a small enough design to easily cover, stock up!  Request paper every time you go there.
To make make gift bag from a plain brown bag (actually you'll need two bags... just set one aside for now), cut a slit (about 3 inches for a large bag) down each corner and fold over twice (about 1.5 inches, then 1.5 inches again).  This helps make the handles sturdier and hides the sometimes rough looking top edges.  Tack that down with a little glue.  Cut two equal pieces of paper twist (about 4 inches longer than you want each handle), and untwist 2 inches of each end of each piece.  Glue the untwisted portions to the inside of the brown bag.  Use your other bag (the one you set aside earlier) to cut two equal sized rectangles (about 3 by 8 inches for a large bag).  Glue those over the ends of the paper twist attached to the inside of the bags.  This increases the sturdiness of the handles and hides the ends of the twist.  Now you have a simple gift bag.  And here's the fun part... decorate it.  For the recycled rose bag in my picture, make leaves and a stem with extra paper twist (or you could paint or draw them), securely glue the newspaper rose at the top of the bag with hot glue and voila!

A few additional ideas for the recycled roses:

A candle holder.  Skip the decoration in the center, add a little extra sparkle and shine with metallic paint or glitter.  I don't need to tell you paper is flammable, but just so I don't get blamed for any house fires...  Either use a large pillar candle (like the one pictured) or if you're using something smaller like a votive, put it in a glass votive holder.  Don't leave candles unattended, blah, blah, blah... next idea.

Top a present.

Doily + Real Leaves = Centerpiece.  If you're setting up a long table, decorate with a row of mismatched (preferably vintage) doilies down the center topped with recycled roses and real leaves instead of a table runner.





That should get you started.  As always, get creative with it, and come up with your own ideas.  Send pics - I'd love to see them!