As we head into half-term I have been thinking about the Teacher’s Gifts needed for the end of term. Handy then that Maggy at Red Ted Art put down a Coffee Stirrer/Lollipop Stick craft challenge this week, which gave me the idea for my contribution to our Craft Hangout.
I made plant markers from the coffee stirrers I have. They are some of the simplest things you can make with lollipop sticks. All you need is either a picture of what you are growing- from a magazine or drawn by your children- or the seed packet. Cut out the picture, and stick it to a piece of cardboard, with a lollipop stick in the middel. It’s a great way of marking your seeds whilst you are propagating them in home or greenhouse and is a great gift for green-fingered relatives that children can make by themselves.
If you are giving a plant as a gift, you can use shapes cut from paper, as I did with my Shamrock Plant markers. But for the hangout, I used a plant gift marker that I made from a cupcake case rosette that I used to make quite a lot of.
You need a handful of cupcake cases in varying sizes, some glue, cardboard and a couple of lollipop sticks.
Flatten out your cupcake cases and stick one on top of the other. Here I stuck a white mini-case to a blue spotted muffin case. I ripped the fluted edge of a third case off and used the middle section to create a centre for the rosette by scrunching it up. With the leftover fluted edge, I made a kind of ribbon- ripping an inverted V in each end of the two pieces. I then glued the whole together. Once happy, I glued it onto cardboard baking, sandwiching the coffee stirrers/lollipop sticks in the middle, then trimmed the card.
Just add a gift message to the back of the cardboard and you are ready.
I have lots of ‘themed’ cup cake cases that have got a bit flat, so this is a great way to use them up.