Transform Your Trash: Paper Flowers

by Aditi Bhandari; Sally Hausken contributed reporting. Turn things that would go into your trashcan into something you can use again.

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, businesses all around the country (and the globe!) are preparing for their biggest sales yet. Earlier this year, it was estimated that Americans will spend $2.1 billion on flowers for their significant others and another $1.5 billion on cute cards. While we’re all for showing our love here at In Our Nature, that’s a lot of dead plants and paper waste to deal with at the end of the weekend.

So why not just combine the two? Paper flowers are extremely easy to make, cost next to nothing and look like they’re straight off of a Pinterest page! They also show your partner that you’ve put a bit of effort into showing them how much you care, and they won’t wilt after a couple of days. Show them how much you love them AND the environment with this quick tutorial. And if you use old campus publications like we did, these flowers are the perfect way to say #ILoveNUandU.

You will need:

- Newspapers

- Scissors

- Paper clips

Step 1: Cut four squares with sides about 1.5 inches long from a sheet of newspaper.

Step 2: Stack the four squares on top of each other and fold it into a fan.

Step 3 (1.jpg, 2.jpg): Unwind a paper clip and fold around the middle of the fan. Twist the ends together to make it stay.

Step 4: Pull each individual layer of petals upwards and out.

Step 5: You can even cut the edges of the paper to create different kinds of flowers!

 

Time taken: 10 minutes[fbshare type="button"] [twitter style="horizontal" float="left"]