stellaire: recylced carton vase

Here's a tutorial for making this pretty, recycled, carton vase (including how to make the flowers!).

First you'll need a small carton. Rinse it out well with hot water and let it dry completely.

Paint it with a color of your choice. I used white so that I could use whatever colors I wanted when I painted on the design. I used acrylic craft paint, but spray paint would be much easier. I had to paint on 4 thick coats of paint to cover up what was printed on the carton. I like how you can see the brush marks (because the paint was so thick) but if you want a smooth surface, I would definately reccomend spray paint.

Then paint a design on it. Or leave it plain, whatever you want. While you let it dry, go outside and look for some flowers to put in it. When you realize it is fall (even if it is still 90+ degrees) and there are no flowers growing, follow this tutorial to make your own.

For the flowers, you'll need wire (I used 28 gauge), washi tape, and coffee filters.

Cut a few piece of wire to the height you want your flowers to be. Wrap them with washi tape, but leave space at the bottom to twist the wire in a spiral. This will help it stand a little better when you put it in the carton.

Cut out the bottom circle of a coffee filter. Poke the top of the wire throuogh the center of the circle, and pinch it so it kind of folds upwards. Secure with glue.

If you want to add color to your flowers, mix a little paint with water and drip it onto the petals. You could use watercolors, but I just diluted acrylic paint and it worked well.

There you go! Even though real flowers would be pretty, they would die quickly since you can't keep water in a cardboard box. These coffee filter flowers are a perfect fix!