Recycled Magazine Flowers

Here is another unique project that we used for Mother's Day cards, but would be fun to do anytime! I saw this featured on the One Pretty Thing site, from Family Fun. My 5th graders had a blast making these (even the boys, who usually resist anything to do with flowers!) and it gave me the opportunity to review the concept of radial symmetry. I even had parents ask me how we did it so they could go home and make some recycled magazine flowers of their own!

To make a Recycled Magazine Flower:
1. Find a page in a magazine that has color printed right to the edge (this is called a "bleed") and carefully tear it out.
2. Roll this page around a pencil, with the torn edge on the inside. Shake your pencil out and glue the loose edge down.
3. Use a 1/8" paper punch to punch a hole at one end. This will become your stem!
4. Now, trace at least three circles using plastic lids or old CD's as templates.
5. Fold each circle in half several times, like you would to make a paper snowflake.
6. Cut your folded circles into petal shapes, varying the sizes and/or shapes of each one. (Be careful not to cut through the folded point!)
7. Stack your circles and push a brass paper fastener through the center, then through the hole in your stem, and secure in back.
8. Add some leaves and glue them to your stem. (Cut two matching leaves and glue together for added strength!)