Pick an item that you have gotten for free/dirt cheap from couponing, and come up with a unique use for it. I just did for panty liners! I used them to make flowers to embellish a yarn wreath! Here’s how:
Here are the materials I used:
-Styrofoam circle
-Yarn – I chose a thicker one so it wouldn’t take as long (in theory) to wrap the wreath
-Ribbon
-Felt flower – yes I cheated and didn’t make this one. I spent all my time making the panty liners flowers instead.
-Hot glue gun
-Panty liners – I used Always brand Panty Liners. I’ll explain more why later, but one crucial reason is that I got a bunch of these for free using $0.50/1 Always Pantiliners 4/3/2011 P&G Insert (exp 4/30/2011). This doubles at Wegmans, making them free!
I started by wrapping the wreath with the yarn I chose. I wrapped it twice – you can’t get it to line up perfectly the first time around, so you need a second wrapping to fill in the gaps.
I then added an embellishing ribbon to my yarn wreath – secured with hot glue Same with the felt flower that I bought.
Now the fun part – making your own panty liner flowers! I have to say that this is ridiculously easy! The Always Panty Liners are perfect for this. Here’s why:
-The entire back of it is sticky, which makes it easy later on the secure the “petals”.
-They are not scented – I think it would creep me out a little if I used scented liners. 
- The edge on the liner is thin and sticks out some – which helps it look more like a real petal.
-They have a very slight purple color to them, making it a pretty color of the flower. (I tried coloring them with food coloring – didn’t turn out to well, so I kept them at the natural color.)
I started by removing the liner from the backing. I started to roll it diagonally to make the center of the flower, and then cut that off.
From then on, I only used the ends of the liners. I cut the ends off, and then cut the ends in half to make the petals. Use the sticky side and add them one at a time to the center that you just rolled. Its so super easy, because the stickiness of the liners make perfect “petals!”
Here is one with the center and about 2 petals wrapped on it.
I used 4 panty liners to make this one, which is 16 “petals” cut from the liners. You will end up with a short stem. In my case, I just cut that off because I was gluing each on the wreath. You could keep the stem, or lengthen it, depending on your project. When you get the size/shape you want, I would recommend wrapping the panty liner flower with floral tape. It secures the final petal that are put on, and makes it look somewhat more realistic.
Note: Be careful not to squeeze or put pressure on the top part of your flower. Since the petals are sticky, they will end up all sticking together, making your flower look like its wilting and dying instead. :(
I added 6 of these flowers to embellish my yarn wreath. They look pretty good, don’t they? Now really – at first glance, would anyone guess that these were made out of panty liners???? Or even second or third glance…???
You could make these for other “special occasions” in a women’s life. How about making a bouquet of these and giving them to your pubescent daughter who celebrated her first monthly sign of womanhood?! :)
A friend of mine said she wants a bouquet when she’s done with menopause – won’t need the liners any more after that! Or how about making the flowers to celebrate a pregnancy? Again – won’t need liners for 9 months. :)
If you decided to go crazy and make lots and lots of these flowers, don’t forget to use a Coupon Clipping service to get a bunch of coupons like $0.50/1 Always Pantiliners 4/3/2011 P&G Insert (exp 4/30/2011). I personally use Coupon Dede. I got a bunch of these coupons from there – so now I can make A LOT of these flowers for free!
If you tackle the project, and make some panty liner flowers and add them to your own yarn wreath, or for your own creative purposes, let me know! I’d love to see and possibly post your project here!
Stay tuned for more Crafting From Your Stockpile ideas!
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