How To Make a Bud Vase

With a little imagination, your bud vase will illuminate a room

Whether you're seeking to make a single bud vase to cheer a friend or you've offered to produce a quantity of them for an upcoming party or event, you needn't worry about breaking the bank or giving up a week of your time to complete the project. Imaginative ideas abound. Match the finished product to the occasion by adding fresh or silk flowers in a complementary color and you'll have pulled off a small miracle for next to nothing. In a few instances, you'll have converted a potentially recyclable object to a thing of beauty.

Things You'll Need

• Bottles, light bulbs or other vessels Cutting tool Individual plastic water tubes Fresh or silk flowers Floral foam, sand or other filler Embellishments such as shells or small stones Newspaper and flour Sculpy® clay Cardboard tubes (paper-towel or toilet-tissue cores) Coaster Glue Fine sandpaper Foil Paints

Instructions

1. Think outside the vase. Visit your local dollar store, and cruise the aisles looking for all types of vessels that can carry the theme chosen for the event. Consider baby bottles for showers, small ceramic pots for garden parties, long test tubes and other uniquely shaped vessels as a base. Fill the interior of the one you've selected with glass stones or sand or place a wedge of floral foam inside and insert a water tube in the middle. Fill the tube with water and add the flower (or omit the water tube if you're using a silk bloom).

2. Make your bud vase the cream of the crop by filling tall ice-cream-soda glasses with wedges of floral foam. Insert a plastic water tube into the middle of the foam wedge and add water to the tube. Place a bloom into the tube. Tuck a straw into the foam to make the ice-cream-soda bud vase look like the real thing. Arrange colorful paper or foil shred around the flower and the straw to hide the foam and serve up your clever bud vase.

3. Craft a bud vase using Sculpy -- the clay that's so simple to use, even kids can make a bud vase. You'll need a form: a cardboard toilet paper roll or a paper towel insert is ideal. Wrap the tube with aluminum foil. Pick your favorite color of Sculpy. Use a rolling pin to stretch it out and make the clay more pliable, then cut strips from the clay. Use your hands to roll snake-like sections. Coil rolled sections around the cardboard form from bottom to top. Using the clay-covered tube as a template, place it on a flat piece of Sculpy to make the base. Trace and cut a circle of clay, joining the base to the sides with your fingers. Remove the interior cardboard/foil insert before baking per package instructions. If you plan to add stones, shells or other embellishments, add them before you put the bud vase into the oven.

4. Recycle plastic water bottles and newspaper to make bud vases that cost nothing to construct. Begin by ripping sections of newspaper into strips. Dip the strips into a mixture of water and flour (make it a thick paste) and begin covering the bottles. Continue to dip strips and layer them until the bottle is covered. Dry thoroughly. Use fine sandpaper to smooth the surface before painting the base with flat or metallic paint. Weight down the bottles by paartially filling them with sand. Insert a water tube into the mouth of the bottle. Add water to the tube and insert a flower. Tie a matching ribbon around the bottle's neck.

5. Adopt the brightest idea of all by morphing an inverted light bulb into a unique bud vase. You'll need a cutting tool to remove the base of the bulb. Finish the cut edge by sanding, soldering or taping it so there's no risk of getting cut. Fill the light bulb with sand or moss, add water and place your mini-bouquet into the bulb. To keep the bulb stable, glue it to a coaster, and then brighten the room with this little piece of ingenuity.

References

• Fun Times Guide
• Apartment therapy