Blooming recycling.

So today seems to be a bit of a wobbly day - emotions running high - but I'm hoping to meet a friend later who, having experienced mental illness herself, is a great person to chat to and I love her to bits.

Despite my wobbles, my aim today was to crack on with making some flowers out of pages from old magazines. Being a huge fan of Pinterest, and not being adverse to recreating some of the crafty things I spy on it, these flowers are something I spotted a while ago now but never really had the time or inclination to have a go at making one. I bought the floristry tape and wooden skewers...and always have access to old magazines. A true case of 'all the gear, no idea'!

Fortunately, the main tool for the job (some herb scissors) I already had...and having discovered they're useless for cutting up herbs (the herbs get stuck between the blades) and was more the willing to redeploy them.

So, the first job? Folding the paper in half lengthways and then concertina each page back on itself so you end up with three folds.

Next, take the redeployed herb scissors (which have now become shredding scissors!) and, with the folds facing up, cut along the strip taking care to leave a 1cm section uncut...or you will actually end up with shredded paper...and you can't make the type of flowers like this with individual strips of paper!

Once the paper is cut as above, apply a piece of double-sided tape to one end and taking a wooden skewer, gently roll the strip round the skewer. I've found it easier to add the double-sided tape in small sections rather than one huge length. 

You need to keep the tension of the roll as tight as possible and push it up (but not so it falls off the end of the skewer...yes that happened to me!) to form a nice rounded flower head. 

Once the flower is rolled, wrap some sellotape or masking tape tightly around the base to pull the paper in and to secure the end.

Take the floristry tape and gently pull on the tape as you wrap it round the skewer and flower base. The warmth of your hand will activate the glue on the tape so it sticks.

And 'ta-dah'...your flower is complete! You can tweak and fluff up the 'petals' as much as necessary.

Here is a collection of my finished flowers. I've made one from coloured paper (80gsm) but I found it harder to wind around the skewer...so have reverted to magazine pages. A great way of recycling old magazines.