Pinterest Flower Mirror Do's and Don't's

Hi There!

If you have ever been on Pinterest for any amount of time at any point in your life, you have probably seen the flower spoon mirror. Here's the link to the original tutorial.

Being an avid pinner, I tried to make this mirror myself, and in the long run, I think I was quite successful. It was definitely a trial and error process, so I'm going to share some tips with you that will make it a lot easier than the original tutorial and a lot easier than what I went through.

Here's the finished product. I think mine ended up being a bit bigger than the original tutorial. I used six boxes of spoons!

Here are some pictures in the process. As you can see, I did something a little different and just used one flat piece of heavy-duty foam board cut into a circle. I hot glued the mirror directly to the foam board. To get an idea of the size, I cut the biggest circle possible out of a standard sized foam board.

So, here are some more tips I discovered along the way.

1. First, break the stems off the spoons with your hands. It isn't too difficult, but you need to take enough of the stem off so that the little stem stub doesn't interrupt the row of spoons you'll be putting on top of it. They don't have to be perfect, but you can use scissors to trim the stems further.
2. The spoons that go around the middle, innermost row have to look perfect. I found the best way to trim these and round them to the right shape was to use nail clippers, then file it down with a nail file. Something I never intended to use my manicure kit for. 
3. I wish I had done this myself, but I think you should prime the spoons before gluing them down. I primed them after, and it was really hard for me to get the primer under the rows of spoons, which created a lot of bubbles and pools of primer. I still recommend painting them once they are attached. 
4. So, the hardest part (once you break all those darn spoons) is gluing the spoons down. I didn't follow any particular pattern, but if you want to be perfect, I would glue one on each pole (North, South, East, West) of the outermost row, then fill them in from there. Leave enough space between the outermost row, because the rows will get tighter and tighter as you go in and you'll end up with some awkward overlap. 
5. Hot glue works really well for the spoons glued to the hot glue, but it won't stick the spoons to the mirror. I had several different failed glue types before I just broke down and used super glue. That worked fine until my roommates threw a football at it, but that was just a minor repair. 
6. I painted the mirror with basic tempera paint. I bought the darkest shade as is and mixed with white as I went out. When you prime the spoons, it might be a good idea to flip the over and prime the backs, too. The spoons are somewhat translucent, and I found it looked better and made the colors more vibrant to have the backs painted so light didn't shine through. 
7. Tempera paint on plastic isn't the most permanent thing... if you scratch it, it comes off, so I had to seal it. I just bought a basic craft sealer in extra shiny finish. It made bubbles too, so I had to go back and smooth them out again and again. The brush I used had a little bit of purple paint left in it from another project, and it made a really cool purple tint in the sealer that made it look like a more natural flower petal. 
8. Finally finished! At this point, the mirror will be filthy! I used a Q-tip and nail polish remover to get really close to the spoons on the mirror and Windex and paper towels for the rest. 
9. Since the back of the mirror is flat if you use foam board, I used Command Strip picture hanging strips for it. I love those things and use them for everything since we aren't allowed to make holes in the walls of our apartment.

 Here's the finished product hanging in our entryway! I redid that table too. I will post about that later. I hope these tips help make things easier if you want to give this project a try! It is really time consuming, but I worked on it little by little over the summer. It is a good, mindless thing to do while watching a movie or something. It would be fun to do with kids! They would probably enjoy breaking all the spoons a lot more that I did! Remember to recycle the spoon stems!

And here are my puppies! I'm home for fall break enjoying their company! Sadie is on the left. She is 7 months old. Zoe is the other one... she just turned 12. They're so cute!