I never thought I would find a good reason to buy artificial flowers, until I realized that fake flowers are just like Legos. Don’t believe me? Take a look at the components:  stems, buds, and connectors. They use a simple snap-on snap-off connection to make a wide range of life-like flowers. With these parts you can mix and match the variety of fake flowers you find at Goodwill to make exquisite hybrid, mutant flowers that are more fantastical than anything you would find on the shelf. There’s no need to buy new artificial flowers when you have such a great selection at a fraction of the cost available at Goodwill. Cook up your own flower varietals!

Particularly with Valentine’s Day around the corner you can give outrageous flowers to your friends, or make a wildly romantic, quirky bouquet for a special friend (wink, wink).

You will need:

• An assortment of fake flowers from Goodwill
• Wire cutters (helpful for bending the wire and sniping off stem branches.)

To make your own flowers, first slide off all the leaves and connectors from the stems.  If you feel so inclined, separate by type (one pile for leaves, one for connectors, one for flowers, this will make the design process more fun.)

Don’t stop there; see how far you can break down the flowers (some of the flower clusters have many layers of different sized connectors. Some of the smallest parts are the most interesting).  Once the parts are separated and in front of you, start recombining. You might want to start with a plain stem and build a long flower by stacking lots of different buds. Maybe play with color transitions-going from red-to-white or blue-to-yellow. You can also make flowers from the leaves or use the components to make hats, headdresses, clips or other fun pieces.  It’s a relaxing project to do with friends on a cold weekend afternoon, or with your kids, too!

As always have fun and experiment to see what outrageous flower combinations you can make. Goodwill has everything you need for your inspiration and materials!