DIY: Paper Flowers

Happy Thursday, Readers!  I hope you’ve enjoyed your week thus far.

My friend Amy went to New York this past New Year’s Eve and saw these paper flowers. She uploaded and tagged me as them on Facebook, demanding that I make them.

So here’s my version:

I’ve seen quite a few tutorials out there, but most of them require a punch of some kind or some other special tool.  I’m going to show you how to make these paper flowers with pretty much common household items.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

1 old book or newspaper

1 pair of scissors

1 pencil

Elmer’s glue or any other stick glue

Some pipe cleaners

WHAT TO DO:

Tear out a page from an old book or grab a sheet of newspaper.  Fold the bottom right corner towards the left side of the page, you should form a right triangle.

Cut off the excess and un-fold.

You now have a square.  Fold the paper in half down the middle.

Fold again. Now you have a smaller square.

Grab your triangular crease and fold. Then grab the tip of the side where all the folds meet.

Cut out the shape of your flower petals.  Remember not to completely cut off the folds.

Unfold the entire thing.  You should have a pretty good flower shape.

Cut off one of the petals.

Now, here’s where it gets a little confusing to pay close attention.  Let’s call the petal to the right of the cut, Petal A and the left one, Petal B.

Put some glue on Petal B.  Place Petal A on top of petal B.

Press and let dry.

Cut out a few more flowers.  At least three more to be exact.  Once you unfold the next flower, cut off two petals instead of just one.

Place the glue on Petal B, and place Petal A over petal B.  Press and let dry.

Continue to cut one more petal off each time until you have at least four flowers in varying sizes.

Take up a pencil and begin to use it by rolling the ends of the petals from the back.  This creates a nice curling effect.

Repeat on all the flowers.

Next cut the tips on the backs of all the flowers.  This is where you will thread the pipe cleaner stem.

Begin layering the flowers on top of another.  Starting with the largest flower, dab some glue and place the next smallest flower inside.

Continue layering until you are out of mini flowers. You can also use your scrap pieces to make the center bits by folding them back with the pencil and rolling them into submission.

Take up your pipe cleaner.  Ball up one of the ends to make a knob.  If you need, you can twist two pipe cleaners together and then knob them at one end.  This will serve as your anchor in the center of the flower.

Pull the pipe cleaner through all the way to the knob.  It should be taunt and given that you didn’t make your holes too big, it should hold pretty well.

And you’re done!

These flowers have so many uses.  You can put them in a vase, make them a cute cake topper, a boutonniere, bouquet, headband… you name it!  You can also paint them like in the first picture above. The possibilities for inspiration are endless with these.

Here are some of the others Jonna, Marie, and I made.

Have a great rest of your day!

Tags: DIY, paper flowers