Repurposed Badminton Birdie Flowers
All summer long I enjoy real flowers in the gardens, and I can't help myself from creating repurposed flowers to accompany them... like the flowers I'm sharing today made from badminton birdies.
This is such an easy project. I started with a $1 thrift store bunch of plastic badminton birdies with rubber bases.
The first thing I did was remove the black tape that was around the bases.
I removed the rubber bases and cut the plastic shuttles with scissors to create petals.
I pressed down to see if I could get a shuttle to open more. It just bounced right back into shape, so it was on to plan b.
I grabbed a couple of heavy books and placed them on top of the shuttles, and I left them for about 24 hours.
You can see the ones on the right that are done. I have two more under that big wildflowers book.
So that the rubbers bases would fit inside the shuttles, I had to trim the bottoms a bit with an xacto knife.
Here you can see the difference in the bases. They were definitely too wide without trimming.
For the stems I'm using metal skewers that I found for $1. I pick these up whenever I see them at thrift stores. They're great for repurposing projects.
You just need to straighten the bent end with some pliers, which is very easy to do.
I spray painted the shuttles a lovely hot pink, the rubber bases a sunny yellow, and the metal skewers a deep green.
This is where you can customize the look by spray painting the shuttles and bases any colors you love.
To put these flowers together poke the pointed end of the skewer through the bottom of the shuttle into the inside.
Then carefully press the skewer into the rubber base just a bit, and add some E6000 glue onto the bottom of the rubber base and around the skewer.
Then guide the rubber base down into the center of the shuttle.
It might be a good idea to do a dry run to make sure you have the base in a good position and then push the skewer up, add glue, and put the base back in place.
Like so. Here you can see my five flowers after they sat for 24 hours to let the glue is cure.
The fun thing about creating smaller flowers like this is you can add them to plants that have finished their flowering for the season, like this spring flowering Pasque flower.
Borrowing the greenery of flowering plants that have already done their beauty duty for the gardening season is a great way to add some fun to your garden.
I think these would look great tucked into a planter, or you could even use them inside too.
If you enjoyed this project you can find more garden art flower projects on my blog here.
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Jamie Tyler Smith on Sep 18, 2022
ADORABLE! If you want to open them up more, for say.. a daisy, you can use a hair dryer or heat gun and weight them down a bit so they'll stay. After they cool down, they will keep the shape you want.
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Tuula - Color Me Thrifty on Aug 15, 2023
Thanks Jamie! That's a great tip.
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Catherine Stewart on Aug 15, 2023
Super cute idea - one of the best I've seen for the garden. Thanks for sharing!
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Tuula - Color Me Thrifty on Aug 15, 2023
Thanks very much Catherine!
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
What do you use for the cinnamon pine cones?
Instead O’Fallon book, have you considered using a hair dryer to get the shuttle’s to reshape them open?
My To-Do list is getting longer. These are great!