DIY Plastic Spoon Flower

I recently painted one of the bedrooms. I wanted the walls to be a medium gray, but it ended up darker than what I had anticipated. I wanted something to brighten up the room a bit. I hung some bright colored curtains which helped, but it needed more. I found a few metal wall hangings that I really liked, but they were expensive. One of the hangings I found was this flower. It was $45 plus shipping and I really did not want to spend that much on a wall hanging.

I flashed back to when I used to work at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. One day, one of the kids made a little flower out of plastic spoons. At the time, I thought it was pretty cool, but didn't think about it again until I saw this wall hanging.

I thought that I could try and make one for the bedroom and I knew it would not cost me a whole lot if it didn't turn out. This is what I ended up making.

Here are the steps I took to make it.

Supplies Needed:

Plastic Spoons (I used about 80)

Aluminum Foil

Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Spray Paint suitable for plastic

Cardboard

Step 1. Cut out two cardboard circles. My circles had a diameter of about 10 inches and about 2.5 inches.

Step 2. Break the handles off the spoons. When breaking the spoons, try not to crack the eating end of the spoon. Be careful when breaking the spoons, because the ends get sharp and can cut your fingers. You may want to try cutting them with scissors, but then the pieces go flying across the room. You can throw away all the handles.

Step 3. Starting from the outside of the large cardboard circle and working inward, hot glue the spoons onto the cardboard. 

Step 4. Continue to hot glue on the spoons until the cardboard is full of spoons.

Step 5. Spray paint the entire thing. You could also use colored plastic spoons instead of spray painting it. I just didn't like the colors of the spoons that were available at the dollar store, so I used clear spoons and spray painted mine.

I thought it looked alright at this point, but I didn't like the center. I wasn't sure what to use to cover the ends of the center spoons. I tried a couple different things that I found around the house, but ultimately decided on making a cardboard middle.

Step 6. Cut a piece of aluminum foil large enough to wrap the small cardboard circle and wrap it. You may chose to tape the back just to ensure it stays wrapped.

 Step 7. Hot glue the small circle to the center of the spoons.

To hang it, I hot glued a small piece of scrap yarn to the back of the large cardboard and hung it with a small finishing nail.

I like how it turned out and it cost less than $5 to make! I actually ended up making two of these and they look really nice in the bedroom. I may make more in different colors.