Dryer Sheet Carnations and Other Flowers

Is it laundry day already? Go ahead and put the clothes in the washer, and before you get them in the dryer, you can make a vase full of gorgeous flowers that smell great. Laundry day is enough of a challenge so you wont be required to get a lot of materials and supplies together or make a huge mess across the kitchen table. Just take a few of the dryer sheets and use them to make the flowers! Dryer sheets are perfumed and perfect for creating assorted flowers. Used dryer sheets wont retain their shapes as flowers so use fresh, unused dryer sheets to start. Take three or four of the sheets and lay them flat. Stack them on top of each other. Turn the stack so that the long sides of the sheets face you. Fold the side over an inch, then turn the stack over and do that again. Continue this, folding the sheets in an accordion style until you get to the other end.

Take one short end of the accordion, align it with the opposite end, folding it in half. At the fold, slip in a green pipe cleaner, then twist it tightly. Leave the remainder of the pipe cleaner hanging down to be used as the stem. Start peeling the layers of the dryer sheets apart to create the flower.

You can make the flowers look different by cutting the ends of the accordion fold. After folding, cut the short ends so that theyre rounded or cut them to have a point at each end. You can even cut them so that there are two small points at each end. Whatever cuts you decide on do the exact same thing to the opposite end. Each cut you make creates a completely different flower. After all the flowers are made, set them in a vase, then paint them. Use any number of things to create the tint you want at the tips of the flowers. Some things that work great include paint, nail polish, lipstick or even markers. Or, use a different technique to glitter the tips. Lightly brush glue over the dryer sheets then dip the flower in glitter. This works better than glitter glue which tends to run. Another technique you can use to make different flowers is to scribble or make other designs on the dryer sheets before stacking and folding them. Make stripes, dots or other patterns, and when you turn them into flowers, youll have unique designs that look fabulous! If you want, embellish the finished flowers by gluing on a few fake leaves. When the dryer sheets lose their aroma simply spray them with air freshener, perfume or something similar. The finished flowers look great anywhere in the home!