Monday, May 30, 2011

Paper Flower Key Holder (Originally by Mark Montano)

This is one of those really neat looking things that looks really difficult, but is actually kind of easy (assuming this isn't you first time using a needle nose pliers!) All you'll need is:

  • A wire hanger
  • Small piece of Cardboard
  • Glue (I used E6000, as I do for everything, but if you don't have that I would recommend a hot glue gun. You can get E6000 at any craft stores as well as Wal Mart. The only catch is that you actually need to be 18+ to buy it)
  • A book you don't need/like/want (Or in my case...a book I happened to have a 2nd copy of)
  • Needle nose pliers
  • Wire cutter
  • Stapler
 Cut a length of your hanger about...6 - 8" long. Using your needle nose pliers, shape it to look like this. It will take awhile. I got pretty frustrated because it didn't work right away, but I am not strong, nor have I ever used needle nose pliers before. It will take some patience.

Glue it on the cardboard like so. Your cardboard should be just larger than a quarter. Oh, and if I were you, I would make sure the loop at the top (for the nail you'll be hanging it on) will actually fit over a nail. Mine didn't, and after I was done I had to do some fancy plier-ing to fix it without ruffling the flower petals.
 Okay. Funny Story. You will need 6 flower cut-outs that look like the flower above. I tried a few things that didn't work, and ultimately I ended up folding a piece of paper in half, then drawing/cutting out half a flower to open it up and have this result. It was...pretty difficult. The lines you see are there so I don't make it too big or small. If it takes you a few tries, don't beat yourself up.

I got kind of annoyed, because all I could think was "I've been drawing for 10 years! Why can't I draw a simple, stupid flower?!". But I had to find what worked for me, and I was being quite a perfectionist about it. It still didn't turn out perfectly, but why should it? No flower is perfect.

So cut out your 6 flowers. I used a razor and pushed down really hard so I would cut through 2 - 3 pages, thus getting 2 - 3 flowers with just one cut. When the perforation won't let you pull out another flower, simply cut over the perforation until you have the 6 flowers you need.

Affix them all so none of the petals match up, then staple 'em right in the middle (I did it twice, making an "X" with the staples"

So now your staple will be showing. I made a really quick cut out of some 'stamen' to glue on top of the staples. I basically cut out a piece of paper with 6 longer "legs" that were thinner and smaller than the flower. I didn't take a picture of this, but you should be able to see it on the finished thing.

So After you've glued that on the staple, glue the entire flower on top of the cardboard/hanger. Let it dry, then ruffle up the feathers. What I did was fold the petals lengthwise, and pushed them up around the "base" of the petal.

And there you are! A wonderful anytime present, or just a present to yourself to finally stop losing your keys ;)