How to Make a Twist-Tie Flower

Here's what you'll need:

• Clear base from a 16- or 20-ounce single-serving soda bottle
• Top of an eyedropper bottle
• 80 to 100 twist ties, each folded in half
• Empty aluminum soda can
• 1 juice box straw
• Yellow twist tie, 1 1/2 inches long
• Magnet
   

And you'll need these tools, too:

• Glue gun
• Non-yellowing glue sticks
• Scissors
• Epoxy
• Work gloves

Getting Started

	1. Cut off the base of a cleaned soda bottle just above the indentations. You should end up with a circle about 2 inches in diameter. Hot-glue the eyedropper cap to the inside center of the soda-bottle bottom.
	2. Put a dab of hot glue at the fold of one of the twist ties and glue it inside the soda bottle bottom snug against the base of the eyedropper. Repeat until twist ties circle the eyedropper base.
	3. Continue gluing twist ties up the sides of the soda bottle base in a spiral, snuggling the next twist tie up against the previous one until the flower looks full.
	4. Epoxy a magnet to the center back of the soda bottle.
	5. Make the bee: For the body, curl the yellow twist tie into a tight spiral. For the wings, cut 2 slices approximately 3/8 inch wide at a sharp angle from the juice-box straw. Glue the wings to the center of the body.

Wearing gloves, cut a very thin strip 2 1/2 to 3 inches long from the arched base of the aluminum can. The strip will naturally spiral as you cut it. Put a dab of hot glue inside the “bee” and insert one end of the spiral into that glue. Hot-glue the other end of the spiral to the center of the flower.