If you've ever walked past a bag of cheap Hawaiian lei garlands at the dollar store and thought "there's something in there" — this short tutorial is for you. I took those flimsy plastic flowers, the kind that come strung together on a cord and look a bit sad on their own, and turned them into layered, rustic flower embellishments you can use on journal covers, pockets, envelopes, gift boxes, and more. The whole process is quick, the supplies cost next to nothing, and the results genuinely surprised me.
What we cover
Starting from a raw dollar-store lei garland, I walk through separating and spray painting the flowers, cutting them down to different sizes using zigzag scissors, layering them into multi-petal blooms, and finishing each flower with a brad through the center. I also cover what goes wrong with spray paint (milky finishes, melted styrofoam) and how to fix it.
What you'll learn
How to separate lei flowers from the garland and prepare them for painting — just cut the cord and pull the flowers free. At this stage they're floppy and a little sad-looking, but that changes once the spray paint goes on and stiffens them up slightly.
How to set up for spray painting small, lightweight pieces, including:
- Laying flowers close together but not touching on paper-covered styrofoam
- Pinning each flower through the center so they don't blow away while you're spraying
- Why the paper layer matters — I skipped it the first time and the spray paint melted straight through the styrofoam underneath
Which spray paints give the richest results — I tried copper, gold, and matte white. Copper was my favourite by far: it gives a warm, bronzy finish with real depth. Gold read a little greener depending on the original flower colour. Matte white worked but felt flat compared to the metallic options. I also experimented with acrylic paint mixed with water in a spray bottle, but the effects were too muted — the flowers looked dull rather than vibrant.
Why you only need to spray one side — the colour bleeds through enough that flipping and re-spraying every flower would double your work without adding much. For my purposes, one side was plenty.
How to resize flowers using zigzag (pinking) scissors, so you can layer different sizes on top of each other. Cut around the outer edge of a flower, open it up, trim until you're happy with the shape and it looks natural, then nest it inside a larger base flower. Most of my finished pieces have three to four layers.
How to finish a layered flower with a brad — a single brad through the center holds all the layers together and adds a decorative detail at the same time. I used small flower-shaped brads from my brad collection, which suited these perfectly.
How to use the finished flowers as journal embellishments, including on covers, inside pages, and tucked into pockets.
Tips & gotchas
Put paper over your styrofoam before you spray — every time. I learned this the hard way. Spray paint dissolves styrofoam on contact, and the first batch was a mess. A single sheet of scrap paper between the flowers and the foam is all it takes.
Pin the flowers down. Even a light breeze will send small plastic flowers skidding across your workspace. A pin through the center of each one keeps them in place while you spray.
Spray on a dry day. This one matters more than I expected. I had a whole batch turn out milky and dull because I sprayed on a humid day — the moisture in the air affects how the paint settles and kills the vibrancy. I did manage to rescue them by going over each flower with a heat gun, which brought the colour back, but it was extra work I could have avoided. If it's raining, or even just very damp, save the spray painting for another day.
Temperature matters too — not too hot, not too cold. Both extremes can cause problems with how the paint cures.
Wear gloves and a mask. Even outdoors, spray paint gets everywhere and the fumes are real. It's a small thing but worth doing.
Acrylic paint in a spray bottle is less vibrant than aerosol spray paint. I tried mixing acrylic paint with water and spraying it over flowers that already had copper on them, hoping for little white splotches of colour. The effect was too washed out. If you want contrast or layered colour, the metallic aerosols do it better.
The same basic technique works with different garland shapes too; I had a second garland with longer, narrower petals that gave a completely different look when layered the same way. Two dollar-store purchases, a can of copper spray paint, and a box of brads goes a surprisingly long way.
