Flower Chains

These flower chains are perfect for manifesting spring vibes in your house (or for decorating at an early spring backyard get-together)! Give your egg cartons a whimsical second life with this fun paper project, created by the organizers of the Gays & Faes music festival.

What is Gays & Faes?

Learn more about Gays and Faes from the organizers themselves:

Gays and Faes is more than a music festival – it’s a queer dreamscape brought to life. Set on the serene acres of South Bear School in rural Decorah from May 29-31, this grassroots, DIY celebration invites attendees to step out of the ordinary and into a weekend devoted to art, community, and queer joy.

At its heart, Gays and Faes is a queer music festival built by and for queer people and their faerie friends. “Queer” is an inclusive, fluid term for anyone who falls outside of heterosexual or cisgender norms. It rejects rigid, traditional, or binary labels, such as solely “gay” or “straight,” favoring a flexible approach to identity in both sexuality and gender.

Gays and Faes centers creative expression, mutual care, and the radical act of gathering simply to exist – loudly, softly, and fully authentic. The festival features indie musicians from across the Midwest, highlighting both emerging and established artists. Genres span intimate folk, dreamy pop, gritty rock, and experimental electronic.

But music is only part of the story. Gays and Faes is a fully immersive experience, shaped by the rolling hills, limestone bluffs, and winding rivers of of the Driftless area. Forest clearings become stages, open fields invite frolicing, and onsite camping creates a temporary village beneath the stars.

The festival embraces play as a form of resistance and healing. Whimsy is encouraged through costumes, sparkles, and expansive fashion, opening up an opportunity to reconnect with imagination and delight in a world that often tells queer people to shrink themselves and their self expression.

Gays and Faes is proudly grassroots and community driven. Built through collaboration, volunteer labor, and local support, the festival prioritizes accessibility and intentionality over scale. Art installations, interactive elements, and shared spaces are crafted with love, resourcefulness, and belief in a brighter future.

More info

Follow @gaysandfaes on instagram to see the 2026 music line-up, get tickets, become a vendor, join the volunteer team, or check out photos from previous years.

Make Your Own Flower Chains!

Supplies:

Egg cartons
Paints in colors of choice (or spray paints)
Paint brushes (if painting with brush)
Sturdy scissors
Darning needle
Thick yarn

Paint your egg cartons. Pick vibrant, flower-based colors, or go wild and do your own surrealist look!

Paint the inside, then flip the egg carton over and do the other side.

Pro tip: If you want to speed this process up (and you have the space / ability), spray paint the cartons instead!

Let your egg cartons dry and grab some sturdy scissors. First, cut out the middle knobs on the carton.

Then separate each row down the middle and get ready to cut out each individual egg cup.

Once you’ve cut out and separated each egg cup, you can start cutting the edges so the cups look like flowers.

Round edges seem to work well with the egg carton design. But remember, just like nature, each flower will look slightly different!

Pro tip: You can add little flower details and artistic flourishes to the flower forms, if you’d like (this is totally optional).

Grab a large darning needle and a string of your choice. Cut about 4-6 feet of string or yard. The Gays and Faes team went with a thick chartreuse yarn.

Tie a loop at the top end of the yarn (you’ll use this for hanging later), then thread the other end through the needle.

Time to assemble your flower chain! Stab the needle through the top of the flower and pull it down the yarn about three inches.

Make a knot at the bottom of this flower form to hold this cup in place.

Repeat for the remaining flower cups, spacing them along the thread. Finish your flower chain when it’s the length you desire.

After you’ve added the last knot on your last flower cup, trim excess yarn. Make as many flower chains as you like – these tend to look best in groupings.