Time to Make
1.5 hours + drying time for ink + glue
Adult Supervision Needed
How to Make
- To get started: Fill a bowl or container with water deep enough to submerge a wooden flower. Place newspaper on your work surface where they can dry. Select flowers roughly the same size to make a bauble. Wear disposable gloves.
- To make a 12-flower bauble Dip a flower it into water, lift it out, shake off any excess water then quickly dab coloured ink onto the petals so the colour spreads over the surface. Try using different colour combinations, dabbing 2 or 3 colours for a multi-coloured effect. Leave some areas uncoloured so the wood shows though. Repeat to make 12 flowers in total. Leave the flowers to dry.
- Start assembling the bauble by applying a small amount of glue onto the side of a flower then pressing another flower against it. Carefully press the outer petals together so the 2 flowers are joined. Add 3 more flowers to make a circle with 5 flowers. It’s easier to position the flowers into a circle if the glue is just applied near the tops of the petals. Glue another flower in the middle of the circle to fill it in. This shape makes half the bauble.
- Repeat to make another half bauble in the same way with 6 flowers.
- Before gluing the 2 halves together, thread a loop of twine through the hole in the middle of a flower then make a knot at the end, or glue it along the side of a flower. Leave to dry. Apply glue along the flowers on one half of the bauble then press the 2 pieces together. Leave to dry.
- If there are any visible gaps between the flowers, scrunch up small pieces of tissue paper to fill them in. Push the tissue into the middle of the bauble with the end of a pencil or small brush to fill the gaps.
The bauble design can be adapted with more or less flowers and by using the rounded rose shapes or the smaller pieces with longer petals. After the flowers have been coloured, you can break or cut petals to use as smaller pieces to add to the bauble.