Reuse Old Egg Cartons To DIY Whimsical Hanging Decor

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Love a good egg scramble in the morning? Eggs are a staple in many homes, and tossing all their cartons seems wasteful. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to use empty egg cartons around your home. But this one might be one of our favorites. Instagram creator @housewright_liz shows off a hanging egg carton flower display, and it's simply gorgeous! The project transforms the individual cups into whimsical white flowers with a surprising amount of detail, and displays them hanging off a tree branch. But there's plenty of room for customization with this DIY floral project.

If you're not an egg eater or don't have the patience to collect enough empty cartons yourself, put out a call to others to save their containers for you. Pulp containers (similar to cardboard but made of paper, water, and grass fibers) are ideal for this craft — even better if you have the bulk egg trays with well-defined separators to create several flowers at once. The best cartons feature cups that have a bit of a flower shape if you cut along their edges. If you can't find any free cartons, you can buy new cartons at farm stores or online — these MT Products Pulp Fiber Egg Flats from Amazon would work well.

This project uses a few other supplies, including white crepe paper streamers and white, green, and yellow paint to finish the flower details. You'll also need your choice of string to hang the flowers and something to hang them from. The original creator uses a tree branch, but you can get creative with other hanging options.

Grab sharp scissors and cut apart those egg cartons! Snip just the tops of the dividers off — those squared pieces become the tiny bit of green at the base of each bloom. Then, cut along the curves of each cup to create the blooms. Most fiber-style egg cartons have a natural four-petal shape, but you can cut them to create the flower shape you want. Each flower also needs a short length of crepe paper streamer, with fringes cut along one edge and painted yellow to create the stamen in the center.

Paint the blooms white (or choose a whimsical color, like pink or lilac — any color that makes you happy!). Roll up the yellow fringed crepe paper, and glue it inside the blooms. Paint the divider squares green (as light or as bold as you want), poke a hole in them, and put a string through the hole. Tie a knot at the end and pull it inside the divider. Glue them onto the bottoms of the flower cups, and hang them up.

If you don't want to hang the flowers from a branch, display them from a horizontal embroidery hoop, or tie them to a long length of string. For variety, turn empty egg cartons into adorable flower pots, and use these egg carton flowers as three-dimensional embellishments around the edges. You could also turn the egg cartons into a cutesy spring garland by sliding each flower over a bulb on a strand of lights.