How to Make Flowers Out Of Plastic Bottles!

It’s a bit sad when winter hits and all of the lovely summer flowers are gone. Don’t worry though you can make your own flowers to keep some colour around the house. This tutorial will show you how to make flowers out of plastic bottles!

We’ve had a gorgeous display of petunias in our back garden throughout spring and summer. They are starting to fade now though and I have had to pull some plants out. Once the really cold weather hits they will be gone. 🙁 We’re going to miss the big splash of colour that has been almost right outside our back door!

I have been keen to make some of these plastic bottle flowers ever since I saw them on Pinterest a while back. With our beautiful petunias dying back I thought now was the perfect time. They look very pretty and I can keep them near my back door to add a splash of colour over the cooler months!

They are so easy to make – and quick too! Once you have the empty bottles you can cut them to make the flowers in a matter of minutes. It actually takes longer to decorate these flowers than it does to create them!

I added cork centres to my flowers but if you save the lid you can leave the cork centre out. That being said it is worth the effort to make up some cork centres because I think the centres take these flowers to the next level.

I used spray paint to decorate both the plastic flowers and the cork centres but you could brush some paint on if you prefer. The corks absorbed a bit of the paint and you can see some of the small holes. But I think that the small dark spots on the centres look quite good.

As I mention in the instructions you don’t have to be too worried about getting each petal to look perfect. I think mine look wonderful and I didn’t fuss too much when making them.

I’m going to put them all around the place on my back veranda over winter to add some colour. They look great displayed in an empty pot or you can use them to decorate some of your existing containers. They’re so cheery looking I’m sure that they will brighten up even the bleakest winter day!

How to Make Flowers Out Of Plastic Bottles

What you need:

Nail Polish remover/tissues (to remove best by date)

1.25 L or 600 ml empty plastic soft drink bottles (if you don’t want to make cork flower centres you will need to keep the lid on)

Scissors*

Utility knife*

Old sparkling wine corks

Spray Paint

Wire (I used 1.25 mm**)

Plyers

Before you start:

Use nail polish remover to remove use by date from bottle

To Make the Flowers:

Make a hole in the side of the bottle 10 cm (4 inches) from the top

Now cut the top off the bottle (recycle the bottom part)Cutting towards the neck of the bottle make straight cuts in the plastic about 2.5 cm (1 inch) apart and 5cm (2 inches) long. I get 8 or 9 cuts around the neck of the bottle.

Bend the resulting plastic strips outwards and back towards the top of the bottle. This will make a plastic fan that becomes the “petals” of the flower.

Trim a small amount off the end of each plastic strip to round off and neaten each petal.

Don’t worry if your petals don’t look exactly the same. Nature doesn’t always make perfect flowers so this makes the flowers look more natural.

Spray paint the plastic flowers (or decorate however you like!)

To Make the Centres:

Use a utility knife to slice the wine cork in half. You need the bottom end of the cork so you want to cut off the top (bulb) part (I use sparkling wine corks mainly because the non-sparkling wines that I buy have screw top bottles!)

Now you can spray paint the bottom part of the cork to make your flower centres.

Assembling the flowers:

Once the paint has dried the flared end of the cork centre can be forced into the centre of the flower.

Now cut a length of wire to make the stem (the length of wire will be determined by how tall you want your flower to be).

Wrap one end of the wire around the neck of the bottle (the shortest end of wire should just cross over the longer piece).

Use a pair of pliers to make a couple of twists in the wire so that it is tightly secured around the neck of the bottle.

You can now “plant” your flowers by pushing the long end of the wire into a pot!

*please be very careful using scissors and utility knife, supervise children when making these flowers

** I found that if you use wire that is too fine it can’t support the flower and if it is too thick then it is hard to wrap around the neck of the bottle.