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With Halloween around the corner and the days turning shorter and darker, my kids have been obsessed with all things glow-in-the-dark. With their newfound interest, we decided to try out this DIY glowing project. All you need is a flower and a few household objects. What else can you make glow?Want to explore more glow-in-the-dark awesomeness without the hassle of gathering materials? Discover the science of glowing slime with <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/us/store/dp/chalkboard-slime-project-kit/2095" target="_self">Chalkboard &amp; Glow Slime</a> from the <a href="https://www.kiwico.com/store" target="_self">KiwiCo Store</a>!

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Test a highlighter and see if it glows under the black fluorescent light. We tested a few colors and found that yellow worked best!

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Partly fill up the clear vase with water.

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Use a box cutter to cut open the highlighter until you reach the inner fibers, which contain the ink. 

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Remove the ink fibers from the pen base and place them into the water. 

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Take your white flower and cut the end so that it will be able to take up water efficiently.&nbsp;

Cutting the stem diagonally increases the surface area exposed to the water. This allows the flower to "drink" more of the low water in a shorter period of time.

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Place the flower into the vase. Allow the flower to sit in the water for several hours to absorb the fluorescent highlighter ink! 

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When the flower has adsorbed the water, its petals will glow!&nbsp;

What's going on?
This project uses a "black light" to make a flower glow. Black lights look a little bit purple, but it's the light they produce that you can't see that's really interesting. Black lights produce ultraviolet (UV) light. Our eyes can't perceive UV light, but our skin can feel it; UV light is the reason we get sunburns.
Some substances, like the ink in many highlighter pens, will glow under a UV light. The fluorescent ink absorbs the energy in the UV light, and then emits it as visible light. Groovy!

clear vase

white flowers

highlighters

box cutter or saw 

water

Scissors

paper towel (optional)

black light/uv light (you can find this at Target, Walmart, or Amazon)

Glow in the Dark Flower

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This project is half art, half science, and all fun! Just write a message or draw a picture in lemon juice or baking soda invisible ink, then reveal the hidden message by rubbing the paper with flowers.

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Gather the materials to make your secret flower messages.

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Start by making your secret message juice. In one small bowl, pour a little bit of lemon juice. In another small bowl, mix up a big scoop of baking soda with just enough water to make it a liquid. You want a lot of baking soda to get a good color-changing effect.

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Using a paintbrush or cotton swab, paint your secret message or drawing on the paper. You can just draw a picture, or write a secret note. Or, write a riddle in pen, and then write the answer in the invisible ink.

You can use both the lemon juice and the baking soda in the same drawing if you like. The lemon juice and baking soda will turn different colors.

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Let the paper dry for at least an hour or so, until all the water has evaporated and your message is invisible.

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When you're ready to reveal your secret, rub a flower over the surface of the paper. The smudge will change colors wherever you painted with the lemon juice or baking soda.

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Rub over all your painted papers with the flowers to reveal your messages and drawings.

Lemon juice and baking soda aren't the only liquids that work. Test out other liquids (like vinegar) and see what you can find.

The secret here is that the flowers act as pH indicators, changing color in an acid or a base. By using both an acid (lemon juice) and a base (baking soda), you can create a painting that reveals two different colors when you rub the flowers over it. We had a great time experimenting with our flowers, since different flowers create different color changes. Definitely worth the sacrifice of a bouquet!

fresh flowers

paper

paintbrush or cotton swab

bowls

lemon juice

baking soda

Invisible Ink

family activities

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Turn plain white flowers into a rainbow bouquet with just a little of science (and food coloring).

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Trim off the bottom of the stem. This will help the flower drink up the water.

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Carefully slice the stem down the middle. (Grownup assistance required.)

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Fill 2 cups with warm water and add food coloring. Pick your favorite colors and add lots! The water should look very dark.

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Place half of the stem into each cup. You may need to lean the flower against something so it doesn’t tip over.

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Wait for a day or so and watch the colors appear!

white flowers (roses or carnations work best)

food coloring

2 cups of water

knife or scissors

Rainbow Flowers

craft

Plant this beautiful felt flower garden with your little ones!

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I first Googled flower templates and searched until I found one that I liked.  I printed it, glued it to some cardboard and then cut it out. This became my template for my flowers.

I then traced the template onto a few different colors of felt making sure I had at least two of each color for the back and front of the flower. I then cut the flowers out.

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Using my hot glue gun, I placed one flower piece on top of another and glued them together. Once the two pieces were together, I pinched them a bit so they were not totally flat. I also left an opening in the bottom of the flower for the stem.

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We then painted a handful of popsicle sticks green for the stems of the flowers. We used acrylic paints, but regular paints would work as well.


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To create the stigma (the thing that sticks out) take a pipe cleaner and wrap it around a pencil as shown in the picture below. Then carefully remove the pipe cleaner from the pencil.

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Trim a bit off the end of the pipe cleaner so you are left only a few inches of straight pipe cleaner below the curly portion.

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Then insert the stick into the flower and position it so the stigma or curly part sticks out. Use the hot glue to attach the popsicle stick to the flower and to close the hole in the bottom of the flower.

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You can make as many or as few as you like.  We made 4 flowers in all.


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We then painted a small box brown to be the dirt or ground for our flowers.

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When the box was dry, (grown-up step ahead!) I cut several slits in the top using an exacto-knife.  These slits are where the flowers would be "planted".

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And then we were ready to "plant" our felt flowers!

felt sheets

craft sticks 

pipe cleaners

green paint

brown paint

cardboard box

hot glue / hot glue gun

pencil

scissors

paint brushes

Planting Felt Flowers

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handmade gifts

Some projects are for a mama, some are for a kid, and some projects are better with two.  This is one of those!  (And so pretty and enjoyable!)

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Decorative washi tape (or duct tape!) would be super cute with these flowers...but we had floral tape, so that is what we used.
We needed pieces of fabric, so Maddie chose patterns from a large box of scraps. I cut out petal shapes and larger circles for the flower centers.

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She put the cotton in the center of the circle. Then Madeleine grabbed the drinking straw and began gathering the edges of the circle around the straw.

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She (with my help, at first) wound the tape tightly around the fabric and straw.

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Once the flower's center was secure, she added petals, one at a time - borrowing my fingers for holding when they were needed.

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Around and around she went, putting in petals just so...

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until all the petals were just right.  Then she started wrapping the straw with the florist tape... around and down. 

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When it seemed like the right spot, she chose a shade of green felt, told me what shape it should be (short and round? long and skinny?), and I cut out a leaf shape for her.  It was added to the straw, the bottom of the leaf wrapped in tightly.

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She continued along to the bottom of the straw, then we secured the tape with a bit of glue, since florist tape isn't very sticky.
It was done!  
She made another, and decided that they'll make a lovely addition to her table for tea!

fabric scraps

floral tape

cotton

drinking straws

Felt scraps

Fabric Flowers

painting

outdoor activities

Sometimes the simplest of crafts are the most loved and beautiful. My daughter questioned why these hydrangeas I brought home were white and not the usual blue we see in the yard."Did the flower fairies miss these when they were painting?" I told her that that was exactly what happened...and that we should help those fairies out. So we pulled out the watercolors and spent the afternoon giving color to some white hydrangeas. 

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This is so simple to do--yet the quality of this afternoon was so special. All you need are some white flowers and some watercolors. (You could pick the flowers together or take an outing to the farmers' market!)

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As soon as we started to add color to the flowers, my daughter's face lit up. We started with a watercolor tray, but eventually pulled out the liquid watercolors to get a more vibrant effect. 

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This is a good project to experiment with color mixing as well. It was fun for both of us to mix the colors right on the petals of the hydrangeas. 

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Eventually rose petals from the garden were brought into the mix. 

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You can use your creation for a special dinner table centerpiece. We did this and Emma was all smiles with such pride for her work! 

watercolor paint

Painted Hydrangeas

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nature

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Take a nature walk to find some fallen branches to upcycle into beautiful blooming spring cherry trees.  We used tissue paper to make the blooms. This is a great way to bring spring inside!

43 easy flowers projects for kids

Screen-free fun!