Turn The Dandelions In Your Yard Into A Stunning Piece Of Decor That Lasts The Whole Season

When you spot dandelions in your garden, do you immediately reach for a weeding tool? Perhaps you start researching how to stop dandelions from taking over your yard. Instead, pause for a moment to consider their beauty. Not only do the bright yellow flowers attract bees, but the puffy seed heads are quite delightful to look at, even if they do blow all over your garden. If you want to dive into some childhood nostalgia, preserve those airy seed heads in a stunning piece of home decor that lasts. By placing the closed flowers in a glass cloche, you can observe the journey from spent dandelion bloom to puff. As Instagrammer decor_delights_studio shows in a DIY video, you can enjoy the beauty for months.

To get started on the most stunning way to preserve dandelions for whimsical decor, you'll need two spent dandelion flowers collected at exactly the right stage of development — that is, after the flowers have been pollinated and died. If you don't get the timing right, you may not end up with the fluffy seed heads that the success of this decor idea hinges on. You'll also need a couple of wooden skewers, an empty glass jar, a few small pieces of bark (from, for example, a bag of rePotme Orchid Potting Mix), decorative rope or twine, and a hot glue gun. You can use any kind of glass jar you have handy, but a jam jar will work perfectly. You could also substitute the orchid mix bark for some small pieces of wood that you collect from your garden — just make sure that they're completely dry. Small pebbles, colored glass beads, seashells, or Mglifeul Artificial Moss would look great, too.

Cut the two dandelion flower stems at two slightly different heights that fit inside the jar. Leave enough room for the seed heads to open. Insert a wooden skewer into the hollow stem of each flower for stability. Trim any excess length from the skewers and apply hot glue to the bases. Press the glue-covered ends onto the jar lid. Surround the base of the stems with pieces of bark, pebbles, shells, glass beads, faux moss, or whatever else you decided to use, sticking them down with hot glue as needed.

Screw the lid back onto the jar, encasing the dandelions inside the glass. Add some more hot glue to the lid and rim of the jar, then wrap the join in decorative rope or twine. You've created a makeshift cloche or bell jar. In fact, cloches are a vintage decor item that is finding its way back into trendy homes. There's no reason you couldn't use a real one for this DIY. Keep an eye out for one when thrifting or buy one new — this 10-piece set of Benecreat Dome Decorative Glass Display Domes costs about $19.

Place your specimen jar on a shelf or table where you can watch as the seed heads slowly open and reveal their whimsical beauty. It will take around seven to 10 days, so be patient. For a little more magic, why not add some Hxweiye Battery-Operated String Lights to the jar before sealing it up? This craft is mostly a set-and-forget project, but if condensation starts to form inside the jar, you risk mold growth. Empty the jar and redo your display with freshly cut flower stems and new embellishments.