I’ve been holding onto this craft for a few days, and I’ve decided I can hold onto it no longer. It’s my new favorite craft on this site, and I think it would be a perfect thing to do with kids for a Mother’s Day craft (though I think the plant marker garden craft come in a close second on that).

Behold, the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

I’m actually thinking of making myself a two-tiered one to put in my office. That seems so dorky when I say that out loud though…

What You Need to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

3 sheets of green tissue paper (ideally in three different shades of green)

3 sheets of pink tissue paper (again ideally in three different shades of pink, or whatever three colors you want)

I think the reason this turned out so well was because I was able to use different shades of green and pink tissue paper. Normal tissue paper packages don’t come so nicely shaded for paper flower crafts, but I swear by a huge package of tissue paper I am able to get at Hobby Lobby for $5 (inconveniently they don’t sell online, but CreateforLess has shades of green at $.89 a package).

A 3 inch styrofoam ball

A small cylinder or cube of floral foam to stick into the clay pot (You could also use play dough)
(I cut a triangle of styrofoam from some appliance packaging we had around the house)

A 3 inch (or so) mini clay plant pot

Plain straight pins

4 straight pins with pretty pearlescent ball on top for the main flowers

A 6″-7″ inch stick from your yard

How to Make the Tissue Paper Flower Topiary

First cut up the green tissue paper into approximately 2 inch squares. They are going to get crumpled up, so don’t worry about being precise or anything.

Start scrunching up the squares into loose little balls. I found it worked best if I rolled them between my hands as if it were clay I was trying to roll into a ball. Even on a tiny ball you will need a surprisingly large number of these, because you want them to be relatively close together.

Next just start pinning them to the styrofoam ball. Don’t put them too close together, because you will want to have room to put in the flowers. You can see in the second photo how close I put them together.

Now cut up your pink tissue paper into squares. For the largest flowers I used about 3 inch squares, the medium about two inch squares and the small about one inch squares. Again, this is approximate, because they are just going to get crumpled up again.

Add the largest flowers first, because they will be the most prominent and need to be placed somewhat evenly around the ball. I thought I was going to add a lot, but found that four was plenty. If you can find straight pins with the pretty pearl tops, use those to attach the largest flowers. If you have a lot of those, you can also use them for your smaller flowers too. I didn’t, so I just used regular straight pins everywhere else.

Then add the smaller flowers in between the green ‘leaves’ where you can still see the styrofoam.

Next, decide what part of the ball you want to be the top, and stuff the stick from your yard into the bottom. I didn’t take a picture of this part, because it’s pretty dang easy to do. Then shove the cylinder or dough into the flower post, and stuff the stick into the midde so that it is standing straight up.

Cover the foam base with green tissue like you did the top ball, but this time, don’t let the styrofoam peek through.

And ta – da, you are done!

This craft is so stunningly pretty, even I had a hard time believing that kids could pull this off. Creating this faux mercury glass look is as easy as using glitter – though I must admit it is just as messy. (OK, it’s actually a little messier – but it’s worth it! Promise!)

I used a dollar store clear glass items and adapted this tutorial from Dollar Store Crafts on how to make an apothecary jar.

Related Pages: DIY Modern Art Plates, Family Keepsake Plates, Snowflake Crafts

Faux Mercury Glass Cake Stand - Gifts Kids Can Make

What You Need to Make This DIY Mercury Glass Cake Stand

Safety Note: Metal leaf is very light and will blow up into the air at the very slightest air movement. I doubt the stuff is unsafe, but if you have  a child with respiratory problems, this project probably isn’t suitable for them.

A clear glass serving plate – if you can find one with a molded texture on the back, it will make the final result look even prettier!

A clear glass candle stick holder

E6000 glass glue

A soft dry paintbrush

Metal leaf – this is the same kind used for gilding. I used silver, but gold is also available. You don’t need full sheets, just a package of scrap leaf.

Leaf sizing or ModPodge. I recommend the outdoor ModPodge for this project because you may need to wash the cake stand at some point. If you use the metal leaf sizing, you will also need metal leaf sealant for your topcoat.

*Note: The finished cake stand is NOT dishwasher safe! Not even close! Get it only wet enough to clean your surfaces.

How to Make This DIY Mercury Glass Cake Stand

Wash and dry your glass pieces, and be sure to remove any price tags or stickers (and any adhesive residue left behind).

Glass cake stand parts from the dollar store

Apply your metal leaf sizing or a very thin layer of ModPodge to the BACK of the plate. You don’t want to risk your food coming into contact with your craft materials. Follow the directions on the product – mine told me to wait 30 minutes for the sizing to become sticky.

When the plate is ready, carefully sprinkle the metal leaf flakes onto the area you glued with the ModPodge or sizing.

Applying metal leaf to the back of the plate

Now take your soft dry paintbrush and simple start pressing the metal leaf onto the glass surface. This part is so much fun! It’s almost like you are painting with silver!

Brushing the metal leaf onto the back of the plate

Don’t worry if there are tiny imperfections and holes, because it just makes it look more mercury glass-ish.

I’ll warn you now. When you are done with this part, you are probably going to need one of these:

This project kinda requires a Dustbuster or vacuum cleaner!

Moving along, then…

Repeat this same process on the outside of the candle stick holder.

Here’s what you’ll have when you are done:

Finished Gilded Cake Stand Parts

Let the project dry for a little while, and then use your E6000 glue to attach the candle stick holder to the very center of the bottom of the plate. Let the glue dry overnight.

Lastly, put on 1-2 coats of Outdoor ModPodge or metal leaf sealant over the bottom of cake plate and candle stick stem. Don’t put it on top of the plate – you want that to be just plain glass so that it’s safe to be in contact with food.

And you’re done! This is SO PRETTY when it is finished – really, it looks so totally store bought, your gift recipient will NEVER guess it’s dollar store origins!

Make a Cake Stand

Remember, this is Day 6 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 6 down, 6 to go!

I absolutely love crafts that are easy, fast, and made with stuff I already have around the house. These fabric flower brooches completely fit the bill! I used some leftover linen fabric I had on hand – but you could just as easily make yours with fabric from a stained blouse, old t-shirt, or whatever.

Easy Fabric Flower Brooch

Plus there’s no template necessary. Imperfect flower petals look best on this project!

Related Pages: Easy Teen Sewing Patterns, 12 Teen Crafts, Kids Flower Crafts

Fabric Flower Brooch Materials List

Fabric Flowers Materials

All you need to make these fabric flowers are a needle, thread, a button or bead for the center, a pin backing (or safety pin!) and scrap fabric.

How to Make Fabric Flowers

First, fold the fabric so that you have 4 layers to cut out our flower petals. Then cut 1 large set of four petals, and 1 smaller set of four petals. Really, it’s next to impossible to mess this part up. Lopsided is good! Mistakes are your friend!

Next stack the petals on top of each other, rotating and flipping them around to make sure that the cuts do not line up.

Stacking and Sewing the Fabric Flower Petals

Next you are going to sew 1 big, fat “X” in the middle of the flowers – the stitches will be about 3/4″ – 1″ inch long.

Flip the flower over and pull the thread as tightly as possible and tie it off. You may want to throw one or two more stitches in place if you want to make sure it puckers like you want it to.

Pull tight and tie off the thread

With the same thread, sew the pin backing in place on the back of the flower:

Sew the pin backing onto the flower brooch

Lastly, either sew of glue the bead or button into the center of the front of the flower – and yes, that’s it – you’re done!

Remember, this is Day 3 of Twleve Days of Gifts Kids Can Make! 3 down, 9 more to go!

Tissue Paper Flower Crafts

Tissue Paper Flower Topiary	Basic Tissue Paper Flowers	Flower Pillbox Hat	Embellished Tissue Paper Flowers

Preschool Flower Crafts

Preschool Paper Flower Garden	Cupcake Liner Flowers	Handprint and Footprint Flowers	Pipe Cleaner Flowers

Flower Printables

Summer Flower Coloring Pages	Spring Flower Coloring Pages	Printable Flowers and Baskets	Printable Flower Letters

Flower Desserts and Treats

Flower Cupcakes	Flower Cookie Pops	Flower Cupcake Toppers	Flower Basket Cupcakes

More Flower Crafts for Kids

Origami Flowers	Dried Flower Crafts	Flower Fairy Crafts	Paper Mache Flowers

Check out more spring crafts and summer crafts, too!

I’ve always been fascinated with package design, so this little project is an exciting first step for me to start putting together some of my own box templates to print & download.

For the favor box pictured above, I printed out the box template onto double sided scrapbook lightweight cardstock. I actually intended for this side of the paper to be on the inside, but fed the paper into my printer wrong. ‘Doh! So I recommend doing a trial run to ensure you are getting what you want before you print out the box template onto your nice papers.

Printed onto a regular letter sized piece of paper at 8.5″ x 11″ inches, the box stands approximately 5 inches tall. If you have a printer or copier to print at larger sizes, you could turn this box template into a gorgeous gift box, or print it on plain paper and let the kids color and decorate it.

How to Put Together the Favor Box

Simple. Just print and then cut out the box template on the outside solid lines. Make folds on the gray dotted lines, and glue the one flap on the bottom end of the template to the opposite end of the box. Then fold the bottm box flaps as shown and tuck the last flap underneath the top flap.

Download and Print the Favor Box Template

Be sure to check out our printable letters, other paper crafts and the birthday party supplies and ideas from all Woo! Jr. Websites for Kids.

Admittedly I’m more interested in garden crafts than I am with gardening… but I might plant something this year just so I can use these plant markers! I have to say I think this is one of my favorite projects I’ve ever come up with!

I sat today and tried to think of every vegetable that I might possibly plant in my garden, and drew them up for this craft pattern download. I believe I only scratched the surface of what vegetables are actually out there though:

Tomatoes, carrots, pumpkins, broccoli, potatoes, corn, lettuce, peas, onions, orange peppers, green peppers, cucumbers, beets (or radishes, I suppose), watermelon, beans, red peppers, yellow peppers and squash.

Download the printable plant marker artwork

So suffice it to say that if you see some fruits or vegetables that I’ve missed, please leave them in a comment and I’ll create a plant markers garden craft “version 2.0″ in the next few days.

What you Need to Make these Plant Markers Garden Craft

Plant Markers Materials

• Download and print the fruit and vegetable illustrations on a color printer
  (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader)
• Sticks from your yard, cut to about 6″ – 8″ inches tall
• Raffia
• Rubber cement or glass glue
• Small clear glass aquarium pebbles, the approximately 3/4 inch size. As tempting as it is, avoid the larger glass pebbles that are over an inch in diameter. They seem like they will work, but the way they are made, they always have wrinkles in the glass on the flat part, which makes it very hard to see the pictures beneath the glass

How to Make these Plant Markers Garden Craft

Glue the paper between the glass pebbles

Carefully cut out the circles of the plant markers you plan on using. I used a 3/4″ hole punch at first, but it was a little too big and I had to trim them down.

When I made these recently I used rubber cement, but in the past I have used this awesome glass glue called Eclectic Adhesive E6000 that I think actually worked better. It’s thicker and left less bubbles between the paper and the glass, and is totally weather proof. Glue the paper veggie circles between two glass pebbles and let dry.

Attach the glued pebbles to the top of the sticks

If you’re using that E6000 glue, you can use it for this next step, too. Otherwise grab a hot glue gun, and attach the two glued together pebbles to the top of the stick. If you’re really picky about what works best, I would use the E6000 for the first step and the glue gun for this step and the next one.

Wrap the raffia around the base

After the glue is dry/cooled off, wrap a 6″ – 8″ inch piece of raffia over the glued area to cover it up. Wrap it in a few layers so that the top layers hold the starting end in place. Then grab that glue gun again and put a dab of it on the back side of the raffia to secure the finishing end in place. This may sound tricky or hard, but it isn’t. It’s super-easy. Trim the ends of the raffia that are still sticking out.

Waterproof the crevice between the pebbles

Now you’re almost done, but you still have paper in between two pebbles that could possibly get wet when it rains. So you need to put a thin layer of glue in the crevice between the two pebbles to seal out the water. You can do this with the rubber cement brush (or more easily with a smaller pain brush), or use your fingers to spread the E6000 glue. It’s ok if it turns out just a little sloppy, because it’s really hard to see anyway.

Now comes the hard part – you can’t use them until you plant your garden!