At last it is May in the Midwest and April shower’s have brought us many May flowers. Since flowers have been on my brain, I’ve been trying to think of easy and inexpensive ways to incorporate them into birthday parties. I got to thinking about paint and stamps so I peeked into my recycling bin (where I always go before I start any craft project) and discovered that the bottom of a water bottle I had tossed in there the night before looked an awful like a flower. My brain went right to a Pinterest post I saw a few months back and I couldn’t wait to get my hands into some goopy paint.

This project would be super-fun to do at a birthday party. You could have guests make beautiful flower pictures for the birthday boy or girl (a fun and low-stress alternative to guests bringing gifts), for each other, or for themselves to bring home! On the flip-side, if you’re looking for a fun invitation idea, stamped cards would be a great one. So fun!

Let’s get painting. You’ll need a bottle with a fun bottom, a pretty blank piece of paper, paints, paper plates, and fingers (who doesn’t like paint on their fingers?). All of this can be found at any dollar store which is always a win.

Now, press the bottle against your paint and stamp it onto your paper. Presto! You have a beautiful flower. Isn’t it fun making pretty things out of garbage? Recycling is the best. For the middles of the flowers (the yellow) I just used one foot from the bottle – you could also use a paint brush.

Continue stamping as many flowers as you want. I left some space on my paper just in case I chose to write something.

There you have it – a recycled masterpiece! Sorry about the garbage can photo but I couldn’t resist, cleaning up was just so easy! If you’re worried about the kids getting paint on their clothes, you can always cut garbage bags to use as smocks. Same goes for bare fingers – you can get vinyl gloves for super cheap. After my painting was complete, I hung it on my indoor clothesline. No clothesline? Just lay these guys flat somewhere out of the reach of puppies, kittens, and little humans 🙂 A pretty painting + easy cleanup = a happy party!