Tutorial: Garden Sunflower From Plastic Spoons from 'We Three Crabs'

I can not even tell you how grateful I am to Erica from 'We Three Crabs' for sharing her guest post with us today. Not only is it perfect for the May craft challenge (outside wall art....how awesome), but is also giving me some time to collect my thoughts, energy and step back a bit from the blogging.  In teacher land examination season is upon us and it is a last intense dash until next Friday and the blissful time of study leave. A time where we can do everything that has been put off in the hope of helping our gorgeous students (in my case no sarcasm intended) in the final few weeks before test time.  If you cast your eye downwards, you'll see the most amazing outdoor sunflower which Erica is sharing with you today. I LOVE sunflowers. And this one reminds me to keep at it. Summer will be here soon, term will be over before I catch my breath and then I can return with the many blog posts and ideas buzzing around my head.

Today I made this flower to hang on the fence in my backyard. I like to have decorations hanging on the fence. It's old and probably needs to be replaced, but that is up to the neighbours. Until they decide to take it down, I enjoy the rustic-ness and decorate it with colourful items. When I ran across this pin on Pinterest, I knew I needed it for my fence! I followed her basic instructions and bought 100 spoons. I dug around in my closet and found a plastic tray that once was used at an office party. More than likely it had cookies on it at one time, now it is the base. I brought home the lid to the coffee can from work to use as the centre. I rummaged through my son's bag of pipe cleaners and dug out all the black ones and a couple of the yellow ones.

 

Cut the handles off your spoons before you start hot gluing. Here is a tip, when you are cutting the handles off the spoons, cut them very short. I left too much handle on most of my spoons and had to re cut most of them. The first row was the most difficult. First I hot glued the row solid all the way around. That did not work so I popped off every other spoon and started over, staggering them a bit. Basically once I got going I just kept going. Then I went back and filled in gaps.

 

Then I took it to the garage and spray painted it yellow. While the paint was drying I hot glued the pipe cleaners to the lid of the coffee can. Then once the paint dried I glued the coffee can lid to the centre. I found a wire coat hanger and glued it to the back to use as a hanger. What a fun, cheap project. With a toddler in my house, all big people's crafts must be done during nap time. This took me about 2 hours to complete and adds a great pop of colour to my back yard garden!

   

Erica is a mom to a busy toddler boy and a wife to an Alaskan Fisherman. Her blog, We Three Crabs is where she shares the stories of their adventures.

Just how cute is that little chap? Please go and check out Erica's blog. You know the kinda gal who will help you out in a bind is the sort of person whose blog you want to read. I'll be back again tomorrow with the monthly book club post. See you then!