Recycled Flowers From DVDs, CDs, and Floppy Disks

I made these flowers out of recycled CDs, DVDs, and Floppy Disks.

I don't keep flowering plants around due to my allergies, so this is a great project to make my planters colorful, upcycle outdated materials, and save me from sneezing!

I hope you enjoy this tutorial! If you want to see more of my work, you can follow me here on Instructables and on Instagram and YouTube - Please Subscribe! You can also buy tech-craft kits designed by me at TechnoChic.net.

Supplies

CDs or DVDs
Floppy Disks or Zip Disks
Floral Wire, or other strong wire
Hot Glue and Hot Glue Gun
Scissors
Dental tool, Awl, or other sharp tool for etching plastic

Step 1: Gather Materials

I've been a maker of up-cycled electronics for over 10 years. The most popular things that I make are sets of Floppy Disk Coasters that I sell on Etsy. So, I never throw away old media - I turn it into art or something useful!

For this project, I looked for some of the "odd ball" disks that were scratched or floppies that had old stickers on them that would be hard to remove. Since it's unlikely that AOL still offers me internet via floppy, I was ready to begin!

I bet you have some in your house too! If not, you *surprisingly* can still purchase them on Amazon or eBay.

Step 2: Cut the Petal Shapes

I started with the DVDs. I used scissors to cut into the disk and realized that I could separate some of the disks into two halves. This created a shiny rainbow layer and a purple iridescent layer - pretty!

I drew a petal shape on a piece of scrap paper and used it as a template to cut out the petal shapes with scissors. I rotated the shape radially while I was cutting so that all of the petals started at the inner ring of the disk and radiated outwards.

Step 3: Etch the Petals

While cutting, I realized that the scratches in the surface picked up and refracted the light being emitted from the rainbow coating. I decided to lean into this and use a dental tool (or you could use an Xacto knife or other pointy object) to etch textures into the petals.

How fun is it to SCRATCH CDs ON PURPOSE! :-D

Step 4: Glue Them Together

With all the petals made, I cut the center plastic "o" piece from another disk and used hot glue to attach all of the petals to it. I used a bead of hot glue around the center and let it dry first, then attached the matching petals from the dual-layer disk on top to give it a 3-dimensional feel.

Step 5: Add a Stem

I bent the end of a piece of floral wire and hot glued it in place in the center of the flowers.

Step 6: Make the Center Piece

To make the center of the flowers, I disassembled the floppy disk and harvested the circular metal piece and the metal "door".

I trimmed away the black disk with scissors to get the circular metal piece.
I cut strips into the door piece with scissors and rolled it into a circular log shape.
Then, I used hot glue to adhere the pieces in place at the center of the flower.

I was ready to decorate!