Puzzle Piece Flower Bouquet

Puzzle pieces make beautiful flowers. This is a fun craft for your guests to make during a puzzle themed party, or you can make them ahead of time as decoration. Affiliate links below. 

Puzzle Piece Flower Bouquet

Materials: 

• old puzzle pieces
• Folk Art gesso
• Folk Art acrylic paint
• colored pencil
• yellow pom poms
• craft glue
• green pipe cleaners
• wire cutters
• tissue paper (green)
• microtip scissors
• small vase

Steps: 

Paint a coat of gesso on to the puzzle pieces. When it is dry, add a coat of acrylic paint. Use a colored pencil to add lines that mimic the veins and ridges of petals. Then glue a pom pom in the center of the flower. 

Twist the pipe cleaners to form leaves. I made two leaves with stems and two without. I recommend making all the leaves with stems, as you can always cut them off later. Add a coat of glue to each leaf and lay it on top of tissue paper. 

When the glue is dry, cut around each leaf. Twist the stems of the flowers together. 

Twist the stems of the leaves around the flower stems. (I did that with the two I had, then glued a third leaf in place. I didn't use the fourth leaf.) Arrange the flowers in the vase. 

I love how my puzzle piece bouquet turned out! It's going on display next to my Lego flowers. 

Vase Transformation (Paint + Bling)

I’ve had a sponge-painted green vase for a really long time. I don’t remember where it came from, but I do know it came to me already painted. I think it was done commercially, but I’m not sure. I'm not the one who painted it and I don’t think I’ve ever used it. I decided to give it a makeover to take it out of the 90’s and make it a bit more modern. Here’s the before and after:

I’m not sure you can tell in the photo, but it’s super sparkly. I started by covering the glossy surface with a thin coat of gesso. (Affiliate link here and throughout the post.) Then I painted the vase black before adding two coats of Extreme Glitter. It was challenging getting into all the tiny crevices between the flower petals, but I used the tiniest brushes and did my best. 

I painted the petals white, the center yellow, and the stem and leaves green. (The stem extends most of the way around the vase and there are leaves on the back. When the paint was dry, I was ready to apply rhinestones. I used self-adhesive green gems for the stem and leaves. I used a strong glue for the flower center and petals. I painted a thin coat of glue on one small section at a time, then added the gems before moving on to another section.

I’m happy with the transformation. The vase looks a lot more modern and is striking on its own. It will look even better filled with flowers.