Flower Power! I mean, pens! =)

A few years back, one of my close friends made me a bouquet of these flower pens and I LOVED them. Not only did they provide year-long color, they were incredibly fun to write with! Since then, I've seen flower pens at coffee shops, the pet store, and registers where any flower-loving person works. They're great! So to continue my "one project a week" as well as my "Pay It Forward" vow, I made a small set to pair with the notecards I made last week. For all of you looking for a quick, simple, and cute gift (even if it's for yourself), I'm including some step-by-step instructions.

Step 1: Choose your flowers! 
Obviously, you'll want to go with a fake flower, and it's best if the shape extends outward and drapes down slightly. Think daisy or lily. However, any flower will do. It's nice if you can find a bouquet already made, or, the "twist tie" versions that I found a Michael's. These were perfect because I didn't have to trim the stem to fit on the pen.

Step 2: Choose your pens and gather supplies. 
The pens don't have to be fancy, just grab a box of 20 for $3. As long as they write well, they're good. And it's nice to have a round barrel. The other supplies you'll need are floral tape (best if it's the sticky kind) and hot glue (yesssss).

Step 3: Attach flower to the pen.
Use your hot glue to affix the flower to the blunt end of the pen, utilizing the stem.

Step 4: Wrap the pen in floral tape. 
I highly recommend the sticky floral tape, however, Michael's was out of it when I stopped by, so I improvised. To work with non-sticky floral tape, I put a dab of hot glue at the tip of the pen (writing side), bonded the tape to it, and wrapped the pen up to the flower where I secured it with another dab of hot glue.

And you're done! Yay! So simple, right? To really embrace the pen bouquet idea, display them in a vase, or a flower pot filled with pebbles. Or, you can just have them hanging out on their own. =) They make excellent gifts or party favors, and the possibilities are endless! You can play with using ribbon instead of floral tape, combining multiple flowers on one pen, decorating a pot or vase to put them in, etc. I just love it! Or, if you're not so keen on crafting but you really dig these pens (ha, dig, get it?), there are professional flower pen crafters who sell them online. Here are just a few of the many shop sites:

Tanya's Bead 'n Craft
Favors by Serendipity
FlowerPens.com

Just to give you an idea of the many possibilities, here are some shots of other people's projects:

So much fun! I can't wait to experiment more with these. I have entire Saturday to do whatever I want, and I'm pretty sure crafting is on the schedule. The fact that it's 9° outside and snowing doesn't really make me want to leave the house. Although the movie theatre is pretty tempting... I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, and for those in the cold-weather areas, stay warm!