Positively Splendid {Crafts, Sewing, Recipes and Home Decor}

Handcrafted. Splendidly.

DIY Metal Flowers

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Good morning!

I don’t know if it has to do with feeling a bit homesick after returning from my trip to visit family in New Mexico last month, but it seems each and every project I set out to do lately winds up having a funky, Southwestern feel. I absolutely adore the vivid color schemes that are the trademark of Southwestern culture and art, and the project I have to share with you today exudes that same vibrant mood.

These fun little blooms are made with a very unlikely element: sheet metal! By juxtaposing something so industrial with homey elements like burlap and buttons, the end result is, in my estimation, truly beguiling! It will only take an afternoon to make enough of these little jewels to cover every special person on your Mothers’ Day, teacher appreciation and graduation gift list. The options for using these flowers to embellish decor projects are endless, but I like the simplicity of attaching a magnet to the back of each as described in the following tutorial. What a perfect way spruce up a drab refrigerator door!

Before moving on to the how-to, I would be remiss not to urge anyone interested in trying out this project to do so with great care! In cutting into metal, the raw edges are very, very sharp. You might consider wearing protective gloves, and please keep all of your supplies out of the reach of children. Clean up as you go, making especially sure to retrieve each and every one of the small pieces of metal left after cutting out the flower shapes. Additionally, the finished flowers are certainly not intended as toys and should be kept out of the reach of small children!

Ok, now that that’s off my chest, let’s dive right in! 🙂

Supplies:
Beguiling Blossom Template {{click here}}
Sharpie or other permanent marker
Sheet metal
Metal shears
Spray paint in various colors
Dimensional foam adhesive dots
Gorilla glue
Hot glue gun/sticks
Burlap, twine, buttons and pearl accents to finish

If you love this project, I do hope you’ll {{venture over to this post}} to check out a fabulous, functional and simple project to display your new flower creations with style! Here’s a little peek. 😉

A couple of additional project notes:
I found I liked the look of leaving some of the flowers unpainted so the metal would be visible in some of the flower layers.
When stacking your blossoms, try to stagger the petals on each layer so the petals in the bottom layer peek out from behind the petals on the layer above. (Refer to photos.)

Let’s all have a great week!

Photobucket
Please take a moment to stop by these terrific parties where I’ll be posting this project!

I’ll also be adding this to Traci’s monthly party…

Reader Interactions

Comments

  4. malia says

    this are so amazing– i am going to try and make them. thanks for the tutorial. you are simply splendid LOL. i’m your newest follower (-:

  5. Alison says

    Amy, these are simply stunning!! I never would have thought to make flowers out of metal stuff! Fabulous idea (although I can imagine all of the injuries I would inflict on myself trying to make these! lol) Beautiful!

  7. Barrie says

    These are adorable! how long does it take the paint to dry? This would be a great craft activity for a sleepover party, I think!

  14. OC Fun Blog says

    WOW! So Creative. I love it. Your photos are so good they look like something out of Real Simple. You have a great blog. Stopping by from SITS!

  15. KJ says

    I saw you featured on tatertots. Your metal flowers are beautiful. I will have to try this! so inspiring!

  16. Abigail says

    These are fantastic! They’d be a great way of recycling/repurposing old drinks cans. The metal is surprisingly easy to cut with strong scissors or a craft knife, and with coloured cans you wouldn’t even need to paint them 😀

  27. Jen says

    very cute! I mistakenly bought aluminium sheet metal for my message board. I was trying to think about what to do with it. It is very easy to cut, so I will try to use it for this.

  30. Sue says

    Amy cool project… I especially liked the metal with the burlap! For those of you that want to try this technique on the cheap try soda cans.. they can be cut with scissors and some dies and can be used on the plain metal side or printed side! Thanks again Amy … I will be following your blog 🙂 Sue

  32. Mom With No Filter says

    These are beautiful!! I just made a few flowers thanks to your instruction 🙂 but instead of using sheet metal I used the metal from empty altoid containers (I eat a ridiculous amount of altoids lol and always save the tins because they make great little boxes). The tins were slightly hard to cut but at least I didn’t have to run out to buy sheet metal. I think I’m actually going to use the flowers to adorn the altoid tins 🙂 thank you for the great idea!!