Hello my dear friends, I love to create things out of something that would some times just be trash to others ~ old to new ~ Todolwen. Recycling is vey important these days and today I am going to share a sort of 'ugly duckling' transformation. I came across this whilst I was browsing the internet and it's such an 'egg'cellent idea really! (There is a little hint for you.) A friend of mine told me that this idea has been around since many years but I can't remember having heard of it before but I loved it right away. Would you believe me if I said that the look of these make me smile these days?! ... Well, they do! My work table is looking like this right now ... covered in a huge mess! My 'ugly duckling' ... ... is made from some ordinary bits and pieces from an egg carton which looks like this before I turn them into ... ... a beautiful swan ~ well, in this case a lovely rose. I liked this the way these turn out so much. I wanted to share a little how-to on how I made them with all of you lovely blogger. I am not claiming the fame to it but I also have no idea who really came up with this for the very first time. I tend to make only 3 roses from one carton. To make them all you will need is ... ... an empty cardboard egg carton, a glue gun and your hands and now you can already start! Separate the lid from the bottom and place the bottom aside for now. I tear three from each lid (one from the front part and two from the top part ) so they are all almost the same size. These will become the center parts of your roses. Tear the strips and then place aside. Now tear cups from the bottom part ~ each rose will need two of them. Tear around the top of the cup ... ... to make the height all around almost the same. I don't make them very neatly because little imperfections will give the rose a more realistic look in the end. Now carefully tear each cup into 4 petals. Some cups have scorched lines you can use as a guide to make your petals the same size. I like to tears the corners of the petals off ... ... so that they slightly rounded but I don't tidy the edge up too much again. And now to create your rose ... ... place one cup inside the other one so that the petals are off center from each other ... ... and using your glue gun add a dot of glue between egg cups to secure them together. Take a strip from the lid ... ... and roll it up. Once rolled let it go slightly so it will fill the center of the bottom section of your rose. Again using your glue gun, add several dots of glue to the bottom of your rolled strip ... ... and place then into the cup of the rose and hold for a moment until the glue sets and that's it! You have just created your first rose! Isn't it lovely?! This is already so beautiful but if you wish you can also give your roses a little color with paint that has been slightly watered down. I like to just white wash mine a little sometimes. I did so with these. There are many tutorials on the Internet and many different ways you can create these lovely blossoms ~ this was just the way I like to make them. I hope you have enjoyed this little how-to and maybe you might try it out some time? And last but not least ... ... have I ever told you that I have some of the sweetest neighbours you could have?! After I told some of them about me taking to making these roses, they were so neat and have started to leave empty egg cartons on my front porch ... ... so I have something to work with. The only thing now is ... I don't even know what I am going to use these roses for yet but I enjoy creating them and I am sure I will come up with something lovely where I can incorporate them in. I guess I will just have to wait and see what I come up with and so will you my dear friends. I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind Have a peaceful and creative day.