Whether you’d appreciate an idea for a last minute Mother’s Day present, or would just like a fun way to brighten up the house, old plastic bottle flowers could be the project for you! There are some really simple tutorials out there and some incredibly complex ones – I’ve saved a little range in our Plastic Bottle Flowers section of Pinterest.

But I have to say I didn’t follow any tutorials in the end – I just cut off the tops and bottoms of some bottles and had a play! The brighter decorations were done with Posca paint pens but we also had fun with some permanent markers and with some kids’ paint. I thought about trying to make some kind of bouquet using pipe cleaners or floristry wire, then decided they might be fun additions to the mud kitchen in the garden…

2022 Additions…

We’ve been having fun with these again recently and have loved all the potential for creativity! With all the designs below, we used paint pens as a way to get bright and lasting colour, and we enjoyed using a mixture of the tops and bottoms of the bottles.

We took off any labels then used a craft knife to carefully cut around the bottle at the top and bottom. For thicker plastic we used the craft knife to make the first cut but used scissors to work the rest of the way round. It’s important to check the edge of the plastic as any rough edges can be sharp and will need cutting to a smooth edge.

The bottoms of the bottles are then brilliant to use as they are, with all sorts of different shapes and patterns in them . The tops can then be cut into petals… using four cuts and bending the petals outwards gives lovely big curved flowers. You can then cut off corners to form whatever shape of petal you’d like. Or you can make more petals and enjoy bending and folding the plastic to give different effects.

This time we used some of the bottle top flowers to make a bunch by threading pipe cleaners through and twisting the ends together. They were a bit floppy but when popped into a jar or vase we thought they looked great!