Eclectic Red Barn: License Plate Flowers

Friday, August 5, 2016

License Plate Flowers

Check out my flower chair below, nestled in with the flowers are some pretty blue, yellow and white flowers that won't die.

They are license plate flowers. You know that I love to reuse and recycle whenever possible. So when I found these license plates in the barn, I knew I wanted to make something different - flowers.

Eclectic Red Barn: Group of License Plates

License plates use to be so easy to come by, not any more. People like to make so many projects with license plates and you don't seem to get new ones these days. I have been asking family members to give me theirs.

Eclectic Red Barn: Two License Plate Flowers

These flowers are rather easy to make and you can create all kinds of colors depending on the plates you have and the pattern you design with the letters and numbers.

The best part is you don't need lots of license plates to make them - all you need is one.

I made one large and one small flower from one license plate and had some left over. So go grab your license plate,

We have flowers to make, let's get started.

1. Gather your supplies:

license plate/s

tin snips

petal pattern

screw, nut and washer

metal skewers

drill or drill press

2. Determine the size of your petals. Mine are about 2 - 2 1/2 inches long for the large one. I just drew a petal on some card stock and used it for my pattern. I laid them down to see if they would make a good flower.

Eclectic Red Barn: License plate flower pattern

3. You can lay the petal onto the license plate and cut it out, or you can trace it onto the license plate with a magic marker.

Eclectic Red Barn: License plate petal outlined

4. Using the tin snips, cut out 5 petals. (The tin snips make it easy to cut out the petal; you do not need a lot of strength to cut them out.)

You can choose colors and patterns for your flowers depending on the license plate and how you position the petal.

Eclectic Red Barn: Tin snips to cut license

5. Now with all 5 petals cut out, it is time to make the holes in the petals for the screw.

I used a drill press but you can also use a drill. Depending on the size of the screw, choose a bit that will make the correct size hole. (I haven't done this, but you could use a nail to make the holes. Place petal on a wooden board and pound in the nail. Wiggle it around a bit and then take it out.)
Drill a hole near the end of each petal.

Eclectic Red Barn: Drilling holes in the petals

6. Insert your screw into the top petal and then the rest of the petals.

7. Turn the flower over. On the back side, lay the metal skewer on the flower petals. (I got mine at Dollar Tree)

Add the washer that will hold the skewer in place. It must be big enough to cover the hole at the top of the skewer. Then add the nut and tighten it. As you can see, the opening at the top of the skewer has been covered.