Hello and happy Spring!
This carrot door hanger looks so impressive, but let me tell you it is easier to create than you may think. You don’t need any craft experience just a willingness to create.
As a cautionary tale though, I will say that this craft requires some hand and grip strength. I happen to have a bone deformity in both of my wrists (madelungs deformity fiy) with arthritis, so this craft was a bit painful. Lucky for me I have a wonderful sister who took over finishing my carrot when I began to struggle. You don’t need to be the hulk by any means, but if you have arthritis you may want to break this craft into different timed sections.
How to Make a Carrot Door Hanger Just in Time for Spring
Let’s get started.
Step One: Gather Your Supplies
You Will Need:
- Orange Silk Tulips
- I purchased four bunches from the craft store
- Faux Greenery Stems
- Floral Wire
- I suggest using green floral wire so that it will blend in with your green stems; however, for the purpose of showing you how to use the wire I used copper to stand out in the photos.
- Wire Cutters
- Needle-Nose Pliers
- Ribbon
- I used a lime green to brighten up the top
- Scissors
- Hot Glue
- A piece of yarn or string
Step Two: Prepare Your Tulips and Greenery
Cut Your Tulips and Greenery:
If you purchase your tulips as a bundle (which is common and economical) you will want to separate them into individual stems. Keep them a bit long, because you can always shorten them later. Be sure to use wire cutters.
In the same way that you had to cut your tulips into individual stems, do the same process to your greenery to make it easier to attach to your carrot later on.
Repair any Damaged Tulips:
Because you will be using hot glue to repair your tulips, please be cautious to avoid burning yourself.
Finding a bundle of perfect tulips may not be achievable. Sometimes crafty people rummage through the floral section as if they where rabbits digging through and destroying your garden. It happens, and if you find yourself in the craft store looking at smashed tulips don’t be discouraged. Silk tulips can be repaired.
Problem: The Flower Won’t Stay on the Stem
Problem: The Tulip is Smashed
Hold your tulip in your hand and move the petals to shape the flower as it should look: like a champagne flute. Examine your tulip to see where the petals should overlap. Once you know where your petals should be, add a drop of glue to your individual petals to adhere them to one another. Just use a drop, you want this glue to be as invisible as possible so that you don’t have a messy tulip covered in glue. Doing this will hold the petals in place so that when you release your hold of the flower you will achieve the perfect tulip.
Step Three: Start to Bundle Your Tulips
To build the carrot, start from the tip and work your way to the greenery. Start your carrot by bundling three tulips, creating a triangle. Use the floral wire to tightly bind the tulips to keep your triangle shape.
Step Four: Adding Tulips to Create the Carrot Shape
Once you have your triangle, continue to add tulips to create your carrot shape. Truly you will be creating a large triangle. A single tulip, followed by row of two tulips, then a row of tree tulips, a row of four tulips, a row of five, and so on until it is as large as you desire. Attach each new row by tightly wrapping it to the existing triangle using your floral wire.
This is what the back of your carrot should look like (the greenery will come in the next step). You can see the different rows of tulips each have their own row of wrapped wire.
Step Five: Tighten Your Wire
Take your needle-nose pliers and use them to grab the rows of floral wire. Once you have a good grip on the wire, twist the wire to tighten their hold of the tulip stems. This will ensure that the tulips will not wiggle out of place later in time.
Step Six: Adding Your Carrot Top Greenery
Once your greenery is prepared, take your carrot and position it so that the tulip stems are facing upward. Now position your greenery stems downward, so that you will be attaching the tulip stems to the greenery stems. You will be attaching your greenery to the tulip stems just as you have been adding rows of tulips to the carrot by wrapping the stems tightly in floral wire.
Step Seven: Add Your Ribbon
The ribbon’s main purpose is to serve as a cover to hide your wire and back to back stems at the top of your carrot. It will also be used to add a hoop to the back of your carrot so you will be able to hang it, in the next step. You can use any color ribbon you wish.
Step Eight: Hanging Your Carrot
I am so sorry that I am unable to tell you the name of this knot. However, I hope you are able to follow what to do by seeing what I have done here. Basically, you will be using the back of your ribbon to attach a piece of yarn or string to the carrot to be able to hang it. I used a piece of yarn that I tied into a loop. I then took that loop and wove it through the ribbon that is already attached to the carrot. Once the yarn is through the ribbon, weave it through itself to create a new knot. Now you have a loop to use to hang your carrot wherever your heart desires.
Step Nine: Enjoy
I hope you have a wonderful spring filled with the smell of fresh hyacinth, the sounds of blue birds in the morning, the warmth of the sunshine on your gorgeous face, and the joy of finding the last Easter egg.
