This is a guest post from Neftaly Lara, a student at Whitney Young High School. 

Today is Valentine’s Day, and that means a lot of people will be out shopping for decorations and gifts. Save money and help the planet with this DIY gift to show you care, without a huge climate impact.

Things you will need:
Medium-weight paper (one 12×12 makes three flowers, one 8.5×11 makes two flowers)
Scissors
Beads
Pencil
Glue gun (and glue)
Sticks
Green paint and paintbrush

Instructions:

1. Draw a template petal (try to make it 2” in length) and a leaf template (try to make it 3” in length) and cut them out.

2. Use your template petal to draw petals all over your petal paper (make sure to fit as many as possible!) and use your leaf template to do the same on your leaf paper.

3. Cut out your petals and leaves.

4. Wrinkle up your petals and leaves. Don’t be afraid to make them ugly. The more wrinkled the better.

5. Paint your sticks green. Let them dry.

6. Use your glue gun to glue a bead on one end of what is now your stem. Then, glue one petal around the stem. Cut about half of an inch off of the petal.

7. Glue two petals facing opposite of each other and then repeat. This will be your second “circle”.

8. For your third circle, you will glue about five or six petals. Make sure to glue them a little bit higher than your first circle.

9. For your fourth circle, you will glue anywhere from six to eight petals, depending on how you space them out. Also make sure to glue them a little higher than you glued your third circle.

10. Glue the leaves on the stick. And ta-da! You have finished making a paper flower. You can make more and make a bouquet or put them in a vase. Either way, they make a beautiful and heart-warming gift!

IDEA: Want to make them cuter? Before you cut any petals out, open up Word and write something repeating all over the page and print it out double-sided. This way, you’ll have flowers that give a sweet message.