Wow your friends and family with these floating flowers that open up when put into water and reveal your messages!
Before you start
- Make a floating flower yourself (to practice and to demonstrate to the young people)
- 2 pieces of paper per participant (A4 or square slightly smaller than A4). Include other types of paper e.g card if you can (optional)
- A pen per participant or pair
- A sink or bowl (a bowl per pair or 3 would be ideal if the group is more than 5 people)
- Water
What to do
Demonstration
Tell participants that today you are going to make a special craft. Get them to gather round a sink or bowl, half fill it with water and then put your floating flower in. It should slowly open and reveal your message (you could write ‘we are going to make floating flowers,’ ‘span the world with friendship,’ ‘happy Wednesday’ or something else of your choice).
Making the flower
Sit participants down, and give out paper pens and scissors. If you can, give young people different types of paper – you will discover that they soak up liquid at different speeds so the flowers made from them will open quicker or more slowly as a result. Then go through the instructions below with them step by step, making one with them as you go so they can see each step clearly:
Take your paper and make it into a square – if it is a rectangle you can do this by folding over one corner to the other side to make a triangle, then cut off the rectangle left at the bottom (like this).
Next, fold your square of paper in half and then in half again (it should still be a square shape).
Using a pencil draw a petal shape from the folded corner. Now use your scissors to cut around the petal shape – make sure you don’t cut across the corner itself.
Open out your paper to reveal the flower you have just cut out!
Fold the end of each petal to the middle.
Take another piece of paper (perhaps from the part you cut off if you were using A4 paper), cut it so that it is no bigger than the centre of your flower as you will need to hide it inside there. Write a message or draw a picture on this secret slip, for your friend next to you. The message could be a kind note to whoever you give your flower to or a nice picture for them. Make sure you keep it a secret!
Put your message/picture inside the paper flower and fold the petals around it.
Revealing our messages
Gather round a sink or give out half filled bowls of water to each pair. Take turns to put your flower into the water and watch as the fibre inside the paper fills with water it swells and the paper gets bigger. Whilst this is happening there is slight movement which makes the (paper) flower open up – revealing your message or drawing!
Talk young people through making another floating flower to take home and gift a friend or family member. You could run this session at a time of the year where you are raising awareness of a cause or campaign or there is a religious or national festival and theme the messages around these events.