Winter Flower Craft - Snowdrop Bottles

The kids and I been talking about winter a lot lately. And it’s no wonder, given the grim, cold and grey weather, the bare branches and muddy fields.

But though we’re at the bleak midwinter stage of the year, there are still signs of life for the kids to find. Some of the prettiest are the early snowdrops that are just beginning to bloom – we’ve spotted the first few flowers, and many more green stalks with buds about to open.

We’ve used these lovely flowers as inspiration for some indoor crafting. And we also made a bunch of our own junk-model snowdrops out of a few empty bottles and some straws. Two simple and sweet little activities that are great for practicing fine motor skills.

Make snowdrops from paper or plastic bottles — *Why do one snowdrop craft when you can do two?!*

Snowdrops generally flower between January and March, making them a true winter flower.

While they’re not a native species to the UK, they’ve been here long enough to be well established in our woodlands and countryside. There are countless places where you can find them blanketing the ground in a pretty display. See below for some suggestions!

They are far too gorgeous to pick – not to mention all parts of the plant are poisonous. So instead we made our own with this simple but effective snowdrops craft!

Vase of snowdrops made from paper and plastic bottles — *Snowdrops made from paper or plastic bottles – two crafts, one flower!*

We used two different methods to create our snowdrops. The idea was very much for the kids to make these completely by themselves while I attempted to drink a cup of tea (whilst it was still hot).

So the process of making, rather than the end result, was what we focused on. As a result, our finished bouquet shows more personality than horticultural perfection!

However it is possible to make some really pretty and lifelike snowdrops using these methods. Feel free to be more perfectionist than us when making your own.

Snowdrops Craft #1 – Bottles and Straws

Our first snowdrop craft is based around using some straws and empty plastic bottles (the little white ones that probiotic yogurt drinks come in).

For my four-year-old, I did a little prep work to set the task up for her, but she did everything else herself. In fact, halfway through she decided that she had a better way of doing things and took charge of the whole operation.

I love that she felt empowered and inspired enough to decide on a new way of making these. So even if the end result is slightly less snowdrop-y, I still love them!

Snowdrop flowers made from recycled plastic bottles — *Yoghurt drink plastic bottles are a great craft resource for junk modelling.*

Materials

For this snowdrop craft, you will need to gather the following supplies (all these are affiliate links):

Empty and clean (obviously!) mini plastic bottles (e.g. yoghurt drink containers)
Bendy eco straws like these. We are using up our old plastic straws and will be restocking with biodegradable ones once those are all gone.
Washi tape
Scissors and marker pen

Empty plastic yoghurt drink bottles and bendy straws — *Plastic bottles, bendy straws and a bit of tape – all you need for this snowdrop craft!*

Instructions

1. Before you begin this snowdrop craft, use a sharp pair of scissors to cut off the top collar of the bottles. Then use a sharp pointed tool, skewer or knife to make a hole in the base. This should be large enough to insert the straw later.

Removing the bottle collar first makes it easier for the kids to cut the snowdrop petals (or tepals, as they are correctly called!).

trimming plastic bottles for flower craft — *The collar on these plastic bottles is hard to cut, so remove before giving to the kids.*

2. Next, draw or let the kids draw the tepal outlines onto the bottle as a guide for cutting. Snowdrops have three exterior tepals, and there are another three small ones inside the flower too.

You may notice some of our flowers are therefore anatomically incorrect. The kids got a bit carried away marking out extra petal! But it didn’t matter as we were being relaxed about sticking to the original design idea.

To me, it was lovely to see the kids adapt and change this snowdrop craft as we went along. Some of the bottles even ended up decorated with washi tape and pen rather than cut!

Child drawing petal shapes onto plastic bottles — *Drawing petals on bottles is tricky!*

3. Let the kids cut out the tepals. The plastic bottles we used for our snowdrop crafting are made of a very soft plastic. So once we removed the collar of the bottle, the tepals (must. use. correct. word!) were easy to cut, even for my four-year-old.

Be sure to check your bottles though, as some plastic can have sharp edges when cut.

Child cutting out petal shapes in plastic bottle — Cutting bottles requires concentration!

If the petal shape, with its curved tip, proves a little difficult for your youngster, try marking triangles instead. This will make the petal/tepals pointed.

A triangle is much simpler to snip, and can always be rounded off afterwards.

White plastic bottle cut with snowdrop petal shapes — *Cutting an unusual material and an interesting shape is a great scissor-skills challenge for preschoolers.*

4. Almost done! Insert the top of a bendy straw into the hole you made in the base of the bottle. For added authenticity, add a strip of green tape around the base.

5. Finally, tape some tissue, crepe, or coloured paper leaves onto the base of the stem to finish off.

As our straws were green, the kids didn’t feel the need to use tissue paper or washi tape to make them look more stem-like.

Plus, T-Bird was having so much fun arranging her ‘flowers’ in our mason jar vase, she didn’t want to stop to add leaves either. So no leaves or fancy stems for us! Oh well.

Child making bottle flower and using washi tape — *Inserting the straw and finding the end of the tape are great challenges too!*

While we made a few flowers this way, T-Bird soon decided that she wanted to decorate the last few bottles with a combination of marker and colourful washi tape.

Having listened to the instructions for doing this snowdrop craft ‘mummy’s way’, she was soon busily informing me of ‘the proper way to do it’. Demonstrating as she worked.

This used up our last few horded bottles. So when she decided she wanted to make some more snowdrops, we turned to our alternate method – the paper flower!

Snowdrops Craft #2 – Making Paper Flowers

This way of crafting snowdrops is even simpler than the first, and doesn’t require any ‘special’ junk – so you can do it even if your family are not addicted to drinking probiotic yogurts. In fact, I think that this version is even prettier than than the bottle one, while still being a great workout for scissor and fine motor skills.

home-made paper snowdrop flowers — *Beautifully delicate and life-like, our paper snowdrops are easy enough for preschoolers to make.*

Materials

White paper (just your ordinary printer or drawing paper)
Bendy straws ( if you don’t have any, you can roll and tape thin tubes of paper)
Green and yellow washi tape (or your preferred type of sticky tape)

paper petals, straws and washi tape — *Scissor skills practice cutting out a row of flower petals.*

Instructions

1. This time around, you start with the straws rather than the tepals/petals.

To create the three inner tepals, snip about a centimetre or two from the top end of the straw so that it separates into three.

Bendy straw cut to make flower stalk — *Making the inner heart of a paper snowdrop.*

2. Next, take a strip of yellow washi tape. We actually used yellow electrical tape for this – it’s shiny and just the right shade of yellow! Whatever you use, roll it at a slight angle to create the centre of the flower. Insert it into your three-prong straw.

Rolled-up yellow tape used as a stamen in a paper flower — *Use rolled-up colour tape to make the stamen for a paper flower*

3. Now for the petals. I cut my A4 paper into long strips and drew a line of simple tepal-petals (roughly snowdrop shaped) with a marker pen, for T-Bird to cut out. Older kids could do all this themselves.

petal shapes drawn on paper strip; child cutting them out. — Drawing a row of petals for little ones allows them to practice cutting out.

4. Take three of your cut-out petals and attach a piece of washi tape along the bottom. Make sure to leave a sticky flap, so that you can use this tape to attach the petal to your straw-stem.

cut-out paper petal with washi tape attached. — *Once they’ve cut out the petals, the kids can snip some washi tape.*

5. Wrap each petal/tepal around the straw one at a time, so that they enclose the three pronged end that you made already.

Don’t wrap these too tightly. It looks more organic if you squish the bottom sections a little and allow the flower to be more open.

Add more tape if necessary to secure the tepals in place once all three are in position.

Attaching paper petals around a straw to make a flower — *Attach the petals around the straw, pinching in the base of each one.*

6. As with the bottle versions, if you want you could get the kids to finish off by wrapping the straw in green tape, or cover it in coloured paper or tissue, and make leaves to attach to the bottom of the stem.

My kids preferred to leave theirs with a bare stalk. Then they spent a happy half hour or so selling each other flowers and trimming the bottle versions’ stalks to make elaborate flower arrangements in our vases and jugs.

Child arranging paper flowers in a vase — Flower arranging is almost as much fun as making them!

And there you have it. Two very simple snowdrop crafts that will give your kids great practice cutting with scissors, and help them practice their fine motor and co-ordination skills too. A bunch of these makes a great kid-made gift or decoration too – especially with Valentine’s and Mother’s Day just around the corner…

The Real Thing – Snowdrops in the Wild

We did this craft on a day that was too cold and rainy to venture out.

But if you fancy seeking out some real snowdrops to study first, the BBC’s Country File site has a great article on the best snowdrop walks in Britain (plus details on how to grow your own).

The National Trust also has regional lists of snowdrop walks on their properties.

If you do see any snowdrops flowering, the Woodland Trust want to know. Snowdrops are one of the species they are monitoring on their Nature’s Calendar, so get the kids photographing and recording their finds on the website.

close up of a snowdrop flower — *Beautiful flowers even in the bleak midwinter!*

Supplies List

The snowdrop craft on this page use pretty standard materials that you probably already have. If you need to stock up, here are some examples from Amazon of the types of things we used.

This post uses affiliate links, meaning I receive a small amount when you click through and buy. You can find out more on my ‘about affiliate links’ page.