CD Flower

For this simple home-made gift, all you need is the following:

1. An old CD

2. x2 pairs of pliers with coated handles (so you don't burn your hands!)

3. A Heat Gun

4. A Vice (to hold the heat gun)

5. Optional Extra's - 1 or 2 more old CD's, some beads or colored glass stones or other decorative additions of your choice.

To begin, mount your heat gun into the vice. This will give you 2 free hands for working with the cd. Have your pliers and or needle nose pliers available along with 1 of the cd's.

It is also advisable to wear a basic mask especially if you are doing this indoors.

Turn on your heat gun

hold the cd on opposite sides with the pliers. Remember, you want the Shiny side to be the inside of the flower.

Bring the CD in front of the heat gun (not too close). You will be able to "feel" the cd softening and becoming pliable.

Don't get the cd too hot at first, you just want to begin to shape it. To form into a flower, you begin slowly bending the cd on all sides into a "bowl shape".

As you begin to get the CD to shape, get the shiny part a little hotter until you see little bubbles form. do this around the whole inside. The little bubbles are the plastic melting and bubbling which will be a permanent visual effect. It bubbles, but keeps the irridescent effect. When you are finished forming your flower, set the cd onto a heat safe table because it will still be too hot to touch for a few minutes. When the cd flower has cooled, you can add some neat personal touches like beads, colored rocks or glass, or you can take another old cd and use regular scissors to cut thin slices for the middle like I did in the pictured one.

Be sure to glue everything on well with a good glue that dries clear. You can paint the printed part or glue mirrors or whatever you choose onto it. Also, you can glue your cd flower onto a small mirror for an even more stunning visual effect. I have found that these flowers make wonderful gifts for most occasions.

Step 1:

Comments

[safetyworx4me]

I thought I was the only 1 doin this but I was wrong. Good work and instructions. TY for sharing. I am adding a few of mine, I hope yall enjoy. Ive added fibre optics to some and color changing lights to others.

[mvicstar]

Yours Looks Beautiful! Have you seen the instruction on YouTube where someone takes a CD and removes the foil then traces an image with marker, then uses puff paint to go around the tracing, then uses suncatcher paint to paint in the spaces. I need to try that one. do you heat any of your CDs? to bend or mold them? I have a heat gun. I think there's a youTube video of a lady who uses stamps to make designs on CD's and then makes jewelry. I guess its all up to the imagination. Kudos on such gorgeous work!

[raven33au]

very nice I am going to make some, thanks for posting :)

[mvicstar]

Wonderful. I would love to see what you create.

[DIY Hacks and How Tos]

Nice. I like the crackled appearance that the CD gets.

[mvicstar]

Thank You. This was my first Instructable, so I hope to improve (A Lot) LOL on future ones. I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Have a Great Day.