Wow your friends and family with these floating flowers that open up when put into water and reveal your messages!
Instructions for Floating Flowers
- 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).
2. Next, fold your square of paper in half and then in half again (it should still be a square shape).
3. 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.
4. Open out your paper to reveal the flower you have just cut out!
5. Fold the end of each petal to the middle.
6. Take another piece of 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. The message could be a kind note to whoever you give your flower to or a nice picture for them.
7. Put your message/picture inside the paper flower and fold the petals around it.
8. Give your flower to the friend or family member you made it for and tell them to put it into a half filled sink of water (or a large bowl of water). You can 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! Experiment with 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.
Take it further
If you liked this activity then why not try making your own aka seltzer rocket or flexing your architectural muscles and seeing. how tall you can build a spaghetti tower.
