For years now, I have wanted to grow tulips in our yard, but due to a general lack of motivation and a more specific talent for plant assassinations, I have spared many little onion-esque-shaped bulbs from a certain short and miserable existence.

You’re welcome little Tulipa Gesneriana.

On occasion I do feel guilty for not even trying. But I am reminded of too many occasions when leafy greenery joyfully sprouted only to wilt, whither, wane, whimper, washout, or waste away, all due primarily to my erratic application of water.

And so, as I have done before when I am feeling woefully unwilling to weather the wonky world of botanical wildlife, I turn to the warm and welcoming wonderland of waste recovery.

Thanks for indulging all of my W’s. They are fun to say. If you don’t, believe me, you should try reading the last two sentences out loud.

Anyhow, that is my long-winded (sorry, I guess I wasn’t, oh my goodness, there I go again, quite finished with the W’s) way (ARRGH! it’s impossible to stop now) of saying that I like to craft with (I give up) beer and soda cans.

But let’s get on with it, shall we?

Step 1 – Preparing the Cans

You need two beer or soda cans flattened into aluminum sheets for each tulip. If you need help getting to this point, there are video resources below.

Watch this video to see how I break down the cans into the four parts I use most frequently.

To learn three methods to flatten the cans, watch the video below.

Step 2 – Cutting and Shaping

Once you have flattened aluminum sheets, you are ready to cut the pieces of the tulip. You can cut by hand with a paper template or use your Cricut cutting machine. The SVG (for Cricut) and PDF (to cut by hand) versions of the templates are at the bottom of this post.

There is one template for the flower and one template for the leaves. You will also need to save a scrap piece of metal approximately 1″ by 4″ and cut slits along the four-inch side about to thirds of the way into the metal strip.

Once the petal shapes are cut out, they need to be glued together in the center with some e6000 glue. You will need to let the glue set up before shaping the petals.

Once the glue has had time to grip, you can use a small piece of metal tape to close up the v-shaped gap and make a curve at the tip of the petals.

To finish shaping the petals, I used a large embossing tool to curl the sides of each one.

Next, I used a piercing tool to make a hole in the center.

To shape the leaves, I used a small embossing tool to draw a line down the center of each leaf.

Then, I glued an 8-inch piece of 22 gauge florist wire to the bottom of each leaf.

Step 3 – Painting and Sealing

I made nine tulips for my display and to paint all the pieces I spread them out and taped them to my table top to keep them from moving during the painting process.

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For all my aluminum can floral arrangements, I have used an undercoat of copper spray paint. I am not sure why I did it the first time, but I liked it, and so I continued using this method.

In addition to all the metal pieces and the wire stems, I also painted two 8-inch pieces of metal tape. Once the paint was dry, I flipped all the metal pieces over to paint the opposite side.

To paint the petals I used paper towel and blotted on some orange and yellow paint.

For the leaves, I used two green colors.

And I painted the little “eyelash” pieces black.

Then, I used Dura Clear gloss varnish to seal all the painted pieces. Dura Clear is the perfect choice for this project because it can be used indoors and outdoors.

You can also see in this photo that one piece of metal tape is painted black, and the other is the color of my flowers.

Advertising Disclosure: Upcycle Design Lab may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services or your clicking on links posted on this website.

Step 4 – Assembling Flowers

I started by taping the “eyelash” piece around my flower stems to assemble the flowers.

I used black-painted tape along the bottom of the metal piece to do this.

Here is what it should look like when the piece has been coiled around the stem.

The flowers can be shaped to be open or in more of a bud shape.

To make the open flower, I used a small piece of yellow tape on the inside of the petals to hold the shape I wanted.

Then, I slid the stem through the hole and secured the stem to the petals with e6000 glue.

To make the bud shape, I used a small rubber band to hold the shape.

Then, I used a little clear e6000 glue on the outside of all the petals to permanently hold the flowers together.

The last step is to attach the leaves by wrapping the wires around the stems.

Step 5 – Arranging

Then, it was time to arrange my flowers and put them outside.

I am, of course, aware that to the average gardener, this process must seem ridiculously labor intensive in comparison to planting a bulb in the ground, but trust me, in my case, it is the only considerate herbicotural option.

And now that they are “planted,” they are completely stress-free and will “bloom” all summer.

If you would like more details on this process you can check out the video tutorial at the top of this post.

Stay crafty, my friend.

Happy Upcycling,

Cindy

SVG Files

PDF’s