Flowers Made Out of 6-Pack Rings

• Use pipe cleaners and six-pack rings to make flowers. PhotoLink/Photodisc/Getty Images

  When you use six-pack rings to make flowers, you help prevent an animal from suffering and make our planet a more beautiful place to live. When young, curious animals poke their heads or snouts through a ring and cannot get it off, some live but often suffer serious deformities, according to Conservation Report. Six-pack ring flowers are a worthy attempt to limit that risk.

Daisy, Black-Eyed Susan and Echinacea

• In the 1970s, crafters used six-pack rings to make daisy trivets, coasters and place mats. Once you cut the rings apart, you can trim them so that each ring has an even width or leave them as-is. You can use narrow satin ribbon, fabric strips, yarn or twine to make double or triple-crochet stitches to cover the first ring.

  Make a lark's-head knot to attach your ribbon, fabric strip, yarn or twine to the first ring, which will be the center of your daisy. Although you can use any color you wish, darker colors will make your daisy's center stand out and lighter colors will look more realistic. Use white for the outside rings and yellow for the center to make Shasta daisies, orange with a dark brown center to make black-eyed Susans, or any shade of purple, fuchsia or magenta with a black, dark brown or dark purple center for echinacea.

  Double or triple-crochet all the way around the ring, pushing the stitches together as you go. Make one cut across six rings so you can link them to the first one. Each subsequent ring you add will link to the first ring and to at least one other ring.

  Once linked, repeat the crochet stitch all the way around the new working ring. Poke your crochet hook through the center of the ring you are covering and pull the yarn back through without snagging the other rings in the loop. Hold your fist against previous rings to push them aside, while grasping the working ring in that same hand. If you catch a previous ring in your loop, pull the yarn loose and repeat the stitch.

Hyacinths

• Think of these as daisies with a twist, literally. When you separate your six-pack rings, trim them so that they are as equal in width as possible. Use a nail or a leather punch to poke a hole in the center of one side of the plastic ring, with a matching hole on the opposite side. Twist the ring so that the two holes match and thread it onto an 18-inch section of coat hanger or chenille craft stem. Bend the hanger or pipe cleaner around the plastic ring so that it stays twisted together and cannot slide off the stem. Continue adding twisted rings until you get a 6-to-8-inch long blossom.

Roses

• If you cut each six-pack ring as close to the same width as possible, you can turn them into tiny rosebuds. Once you cut and trim them, cut across each one to open the ring. Fold one end of a cut-apart six-pack ring backward across itself diagonally. Pinch it to make a firm crease in the plastic. Thread a tapestry needle with crewel yarn or embroidery thread. Poke a hole through the folded ring with a needle and use a single whipstitch to hold the fold together.

  Continue to fold the plastic ring backward across itself and stitch through the center of the flower until your rosebud is about the size of the ones used to trim hats and clothing, which is between 1/2-inch to 1-inch tall and 3/4-inch to 1-inch around at the base. Dip each rose in clear adhesive and sprinkle it with gold, copper, silver or other metallic glitter and use them to embellish T-shirts, beach hats or beach sandals.