Sedra's DIY projects blog

DIY paper flowers

Sometimes the easiest way to add your own personal stamp on your home without spending a lot of cash is to make something crafty. For me and Steve, that means being really picky about what kind of crafty projects we use, because we like a clean, sophisticated look with a touch of warm, family friendly personality! While we always enjoy fresh flowers in our home, these DIY paper flower projects are elegant, beautiful and yet still creative. (Oh, and they are paper, so they are affordable.) Try thinking of traditional crafts in new ways…these aren’t your typical tissue paper flowers! (Yes, all those gorgeous flowers below, are PAPER!) Try your favorite of these DIY paper flower projects to accent your home!

#1 Roses

#2 Crepe and water color flowers

Materials:

White crepe paper

watercolor paints or food coloring

spray bottle

round microwave safe bowl

scissors

hot glue gun

florist tape

florist wire or old artificial tulip flower stem

Directions:
1. Cut crepe into petal shapes
2. Turn bowl upside down and place crepe petal on top as shown
3. Spray paper with water – crepe will curl around bowl naturally
4. Gently shape crepe paper around bowl
5. Apply desired paint colour – you will notice the color will start to run down the petal; continue to apply desired paint colour gradually lighter
6. Place bowl in microwave and set time for 30 seconds – this should be sufficient time to dry the paper, but if not, reheat for another 5 seconds
7. Gently peel petal off bowl – your petal will have a beautiful concave shape
8. Remove petals from old artificial tulip to reveal the plastic core
9. Scrunch some previously painted crepe paper and glue to centre of the plastic core
10. Glue petals one at a time around core
11. Shape petals and finish by wrapping some floral tape around stem
note: if you do not have a stem and would like to use floral wire, simply form ball shape with some pre-painted crepe paper and attach to wire with some floral tape and follow steps 1-10 above.

#3 Water color paper roses

What you’ll need:

Paper of your choice – standard printer paper works fine. Using anything much heavier than that might make the flower stiffer and harder to shape.
Glue
Scissors
To put the flower on a wire, you’ll need a length of floral wire and a bead about 1/8” diameter.

These paper roses are so easy to make, and come out looking great! They don’t take too long to make either, so gather some friends and a bottle of wine or two, and soon you’d have a pile of paper roses for wedding décor! (Check out the corsages and boutonnieres from Eliza and Josh’s wedding posted last week – you too can make these cool roses!) You can use any paper you like – I used a very simple splash of watercolour in the center of these sheets for some colour, but you could try sheet music, wrapping paper, book pages, origami paper, newsprint, and more!

Start with 3 paper squares, at least 4” across. Start with one, and fold it in half corner to corner (with the paper design on the inside). Fold in half again and half again, each corner to corner, until you have a triangle with folds along two edges and an open top. Just like making snowflakes or paper hearts in elementary school, cut off the top of the open part into a rounded-top petal shape and cut JUST THE TINIEST AMOUNT off the bottom corner to put a hole in the center. Repeat with all 3 squares.

Unfold your petal-triangles into the flat little flower shapes they should now be. If any of the holes in the center are more than about 1/4” across, you’re going to want to recut them – the smaller the center opening, the easier to stack your layers later! It doesn’t have to be a pinprick, just don’t try and use a layer with a ½” hole in the middle.

From your first paper flower layer, cut out one petal along the fold lines. For the second, cut out a chunk of 2 petals (1/4 of the flower) and for the third, you guessed it, cut out a chunk of 3 petals! Save all the smaller pieces you just cut, as they’re going to form the center of your flower.

Apply glue to one petal of each of the larger pieces, and overlap to form each layer into a cone. When you’re finished, you’ll now have layers with 4, 5, and 6 petals. For each of these 3 pieces, gently roll the rounded petal tops back to let the flower “blossom” a little bit – this results in a fuller and more natural looking rose.

For the inside of the flower, start with the smallest individual petal piece and roll into a cone. Glue along the edge to hold it in this cone shape. For the two and three-petal sections, overlap just a bit of the edges and glue to form cones for each of them.

Now you’re ready to assemble! If you’d like to put the flower on a wire, take a length of floral wire and fold it in half loosely. Take a bead at least 1/8” across and slide it done one half of the wire so it sits in the center, then twist to secure it. Now slide your first layer, the smallest single-petal cone, onto the wire so that the bead will wedge inside the cone and prevent the wire from sliding out.

Apply a small amount of glue to the very bottom of the first layer, then slide the two-petal cone onto the wire and hold to allow the glue to set. Repeat with layers 3-6, rotating each layer as appropriate to try and alternate petals and gaps.

When you finish gluing the flower together on the wire, one way to keep it extra secure is to slide an additional bead on one half of the open wire ends, then twist the other wire strand around to secure it. For a fuller, finished stem look, you can wrap the wire in floral tape or green masking tape.

All done! To make a bouquet like this one with 6 or 7 flowers can be finished in a short half-hour, and there are so many ways to personalize using your own paper design ideas!