It’s been a long and arduous summer for me and my garden. I can only conclude that I haven’t tended to my little crops as well as I should have. Because while others are posting their award-winning bountiful harvest pictures on Facebook and Instagram, my leafy greens look haggard and mostly barren. And as the summer draws to a close, I can sense their resentment. I imagine them colluding and plotting their revenge for my questionable caretaking. Or perhaps they are competing to see who can be the greatest disappointment.

In my defense, I am completely uneducated in matters of botany and the care of flora. And I fear my little wards are not giving me due appreciation for my harrowing efforts. All summer long, I have sweated in the hot sun to lug water to my thirsty ingrates. After which, I spent hours (ok, maybe not hours but minutes, yeah, at least some minutes) agonizing over whether they are wilted due to dehydration or excess H2O.

I have wasted time pondering whether or not they are getting too much or not enough sun, wrestled with sleepless nights considering if they are being eaten by some malicious parasite. I have even contemplated the hospitality level of my soil composition. After examining all of these potential problems, my only solution has been to meekly add more water. Unfortunately, this leads back to me as the root (if you will excuse the pun) cause of my garden’s current predicament.

Therefore I can hardly blame the tomato plants for scheming to launch their hard green off-spring my way or the jeering lettuce plants for mocking me with their towering 3 feet tall seed-sprouted heads. The mint and the parsley are too sickly to be threatening. And the basil seems suspiciously content. But I am a little worried about the butternut squash. A few of its flowers have developed into club-shaped truncheons that look a little threatening—causing me to retreat to my happy place of crafting.

And after my latest crafting accomplishment, none of my gardening negligence matters. All my doubts have vanished. I now fancy myself a horticulture genius! That is if, by horticulture, you mean designing flowers made from aluminum cans, and by genius, you mean someone nuts enough to go about making them, which of course, no one does. But since we have already established my limited understanding of agricultural matters, we will be using my definition of “horticultural genius.”

Me. 🙂

I just can’t help it. I am quite pleased with myself and my latest aluminum can creation.

And you can’t imagine my relief knowing that I don’t have to do a thing for them because I am actually really good at that.

Step 1- Cut and Flatten Cans

Each flower takes one can, so you will need as many cans as flowers you want to make. Once the cans are clean, you will need to cut and flatten them.

This short video will show you how I cut and flatten all my aluminum cans for crafting.

Step 2 – Cut Flower Shapes

These flowers require some intricate cutting, so you will want to use a cutting machine and the free SVG files at the bottom of this post. Watch this video if you want more information on cutting aluminum cans on a Cricut cutting machine.

Weeding or separating the pieces takes patience, but you should have precise cut shapes once the parts are separated.

*** Please see the bottom of this post for access to the FREE SVG files. ***

Step 3 – Embossing and Shaping

I use the small end of my embossing tool to add some dimension to the petals and leaves. The video tutorial will provide more details, but this is what the pieces should look like after embossing.

To shape the center of the Daisy I used a tool called a dapping and doming block set.

Step 4 – Gluing Wire

E6000 is my go-to glue for this and many projects. For all the leaf pieces, I used lightweight florist wire cut about 3 inches long.

For the mum-shaped petals, I used longer pieces of dollar tree wire, approximately 12 inches long.

To attach the wire, I added a bead of glue to the pieces and then laid the wire in the glue. This glue must cure for 24 hours to reach its full holding potential, but it will hold the bond in a few hours.

Step 5 – Painting

You can paint the pieces anyway way you like. The technique I use is to start with a coat of copper spray paint and then dab on additional colors with a paper towel. Again you can find more details on this process in the video tutorial.

Once the paint dried, I added a coat of DecoArt DuraClear gloss varnish to seal each piece.

Step 6 – Assembling the Daisy

I used four strands of dollar tree wire cut to the length of my desired stem to assemble the daisy. Next, I punched a hole in the center of the two petal pieces and threaded the wire through the hole. To hold the pieces on the wire, I used some round-tipped jewelry pliers to make a knot at the top.

Then I used E6000 glue to fix the petals and add the center to the flower.

Once the glue was dry, I added the leaves by twisting the wires together.

Step 7 – Assembling the Mums

First, I cut two pieces of black dollar tree wire about three inches long. Next, I wound half the wire around a skinny skewer to make a coil. Once that was complete, I attached the black coiled wires to one piece of the mum petals by twisting the wires together.

I continued winding the wires together to assemble the flower until all four petal pieces were secured at the top.

Then I continued twisting the wire and adding the leaf pieces as I worked my way down the stem.

Again check the video for more detailed instructions.

Step 8 – Finishing

If your flowers are displayed indoors, I recommend using florist tape to wrap the stems. This process will be much faster.

I made my flowers for outdoor use, so mine are wrapped with more of the florist wire.

The last step is to shape the flowers. To shape the mums, I gently separated the petals and then rolled them around my finger to curl each petal.

To shape the daisies, I used my fingers to add a slight curve to each petal.

Then I made a few more. 🙂

If you missed my last post, you can check out my aluminum can rosebush here.

You can find my first aluminum can plant here. I called it a hosta, but apparently, it looks nothing like one. (Do I really have to explain?)

Happy Upcycling,

Cindy

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