Egg Carton Flower Wreath

What You Need:

• Sheet of felt or craft foam
• Food dye
• Water
• Egg carton bottom, with cups separated
• 2 bowls or circular items, to trace wreath base
• A few short glasses or ramekins
• Safety scissors
• Glue
• Buttons, gems, glitter glue, or stickers (optional)
• Newspaper or a drop cloth (optional)

What You Do:

1. First find two objects you can use to trace two circles onto a sheet of felt. Mixing bowls that nest into each other are a good choice. The goal is to draw an inner and an outer circle that when cut out will leave you with an O shape to use as the base of the wreath. Trace the larger circle first, then trace the smaller circle within the larger circle. If you want to point out symmetry to your child you can make an example of trying to center the smaller circle so that the O shape is somewhat even all around. 
2. Cut out the circles. Cutting Tip: Fold the cloth in half and you'll only need to cut out two semicircles.
3. To make the flowers you’ll want to first separate each cup of an egg carton. Hand your child one of the cups from the egg carton. This will become a flower! Ask him how he’d like this flower to look. He can leave it as it is, cut slits down the sides to make petals, snip bits off the top, or even tear the paper flower into shape. Make sure to leave the center base of the cup intact.
4. To paint the flowers set up a couple of short or shallow glasses, or ramekins, with a little water in each. Have your child choose a color of food dye and help him by squeezing a drop or two of dye into a cup of water. Separate colors into different cups. You may want to spread newspaper out on your work surface to sop up any drips or spills. 
5. You’re ready to paint! Painting the flowers will be a bit like dyeing eggs - lots of dunking, dipping, and swirling. Encourage your kid to dip one end of his egg carton flower into the colored water. He can try out different techniques--a quick dunk, fully submerging the flower or just putting in an edge. Have him see what happens if he leaves the flower to dry then dunks it in a different color. Tip: the longer you leave the paper cup in the water the more water it will soak up. For less wait time don’t leave your paper flowers to soak; they'll dry faster!
6. You can also get out a tub or bowl and have your child hold a paper flower over it as he pours different colors of dyed water onto it, literally giving it a splash of color. Keep in mind that colors will mix together in the bottom of the bowl; this can be great when it’s just two and he makes a secondary color like purple! Pretty quickly the water in the bowl will get inky and murky the more colors get added.
7. Once he’s colored as many flowers as he’d like for his wreath he can leave them out to dry before finishing the wreath; it may take overnight.
8. When the flowers are dry or when you’re ready your child can decorate them more by gluing a button or gem into the center of each, drawing on them, or adding glitter glue or stickers.
9. He can preview his wreath by putting flowers around the circle of fabric to see how he’d like to position each and moving them around.
10. Help him add glue to the bottom of each flower and press each firmly back down into position on the circle of felt. Leave it to dry.

When the wreath is set you can hang it up, lay it on a tabletop as a centerpiece, around the base of a vase - there are plenty of possibilities for this flexible wreath of recycled paper flowers!