Paper Flowers

Paper Flower 

May 4, 2011

by Wendy Switzer

Supplies:

·         Cardstock & copy paper

·         Scissors

·         Glue gun

·         Dowel

·         Floral Wire

·         Wire cutters

·         Floral tape

·         Ink pads

·         Flower punch or die cuts

o    Cricut machine & “Paisley” cartridge used in this project

Instructions:

Chrysanthemum

1.     Cut out 8- 3” “daisy” flower shapes that have 10-12 petals each. 

2.     Use your scissors to make cuts in each of the flower die cuts as follows: (do not throw away any pieces that are cut away, as you will need every piece to build your flower.

a.     First flower, do nothing to and set aside, this is your bottom piece.

b.    Flower #1 - Cut a slit from in-between 2 of the petals to the middle of the die cut

c.     Flower #2 - Cut out one petal making a triangle cut to the center of the die cut

d.    Flower #3 – Cut out two petals in the same manner as above

e.     Flower #4 – Cut out 3 petals…

f.     Cut each of the remaining flowers in the same manner, each time removing 1 more petal

3.     With every piece of flower, you will take it and overlap the two end petals and glue them together. 

4.     Keep each flower piece in order from largest to smallest. 

5.     Ink all of your flower petals to the desired shade.

6.     Once you have all of your flower pieces glued, take your dowel and curl the petals

7.     Glue all of your petals together in order of size…largest to smallest.

Pinecone

1.     Follow the Chrysanthemum flower steps, only cut 15 flowers and make them 2”.

2.     Take 8 flowers and follow step 2

3.     Follow step 2b for the remaining flowers

4.     Set aside flower 2a…this will be the very bottom of your pinecone. 

5.     Use a dowel to curl the petals.

6.     Construct the pinecone in the same manner as you did for the Chrysanthemum, only do not push each petal so far down into each other.  You want them to stick up a bit more than they did in the flower.  Adding more glue helps to give each layer a bit more height

7.     Next keep adding the duplicate flowers from step 4 to the bottom. 

8.     Add your 2a flower to the very bottom and you are done.

Tropical Flower

1.     Cut out a 3” “daisy” flower shape with 12 petals.

2.     Ink edges as desired

3.     Fold daisy in half.  Open up and fold in half again (across the first fold)

4.     Crease two lines inward and the other two lines outward.

5.     Hold each OUTWARD crease and push towards the center of the flower, “buckling” the flower inward. 

6.     Use a dowel to curl each petal.

7.     Wire stem:  This step is optional.  Take an 8” piece of floral wire and make a very small loop at one end.  Poke a hole in the center of the flower and insert the wire so that the loop is resting inside the flower.  Once you have finished step 8, you can add floral tape for a final touch.

8.     Add hot glue to the center of the flower.  If you add “more than enough” glue, it will gather in the center of the flower as you press it together.  This will give your flower a unique center.  OR you can add a small embellishment, smaller flower, brad, etc. for your own look.

Lilac

1.     Cut out 40-50 1.5” “daisy” flower shapes that have 12 petals each.

2.     Follow steps 2-6 for the tropical flower.  Then complete step 8 for the tropical flower and set all the flowers aside.

3.     Using 8 – 3” pieces and 1 -  8” piece of floral wire and florists tape we need to create our stem for the flowers to be placed upon.  Start wrapping your 8” piece of wire with florists tape.  About 2” down add a 3” piece, but only wrap ½ of the wire into your stem, leaving the other ½ of the wire sticking UP.  Wrap down about another ½” add another 3” wire…and so on until you have all of your wires added.  Try to add each wire on a different side each time to create a realistic looking stem for your flowers.  Continue with wrapping the 8” wire until the very bottom.

4.     Start gluing your flowers to each wire.  Begin at the top point and add 3 flowers…one to the very tip of the wire and two additional flowers.  Each wire, thereafter, will have the same amount of flowers added in the same manner.  After your stem is complete, you can go back and add additional flowers where there might be some bare spots. 

Lily

1.     Cut a 3”X3” square of copy paper.  You can use cardstock, but with this flower, I have found that it is easier to use the thinner paper for this.

2.     Fold paper into a triangle.

3.     Next, fold each corner up to meet the triangle point. 

4.     Now take each of those pieces, that you JUST folded, and fold them back onto themselves even with the last fold.  This makes little triangles on each side.

5.     Open both small triangles and squish them flat.

6.     Fold down the tops, then fold it half way back up again. You want this to stick up from the small triangles.  These will be your anthers to your flower. (Anthers are the center part of a flower that produces pollen)

7.     Fold each small triangle in ½. 

8.     Crease all folds very well.

9.     Open up a bit so that you can ink the tops of the small triangles yellow and the anthers green.  You can also color the top of the large square yellow.

10.  If you want to add a wire stem to the flower, cut an 8” piece of wire and glue ¼” of it at the bottom between the small triangles. 

11.  Add glue to one of the small triangles and curl towards the center to glue to the second sm triangle. 

12.  Add green leaves to the sides.

Rose

1.     Use copy paper to cut 15-20 petal shapes (smaller at the bottom larger on the top, but about 2” tall)

2.     Ink all of your petals in a desired color.

3.     Cut a 6” piece of floral wire and wrap it with floral tape.

4.     Take one petal and tightly wrap it around the top of the wire.

5.     Next take a ½” X 5” strip of paper and glue it to the bottom of the petal you just glued to the wire stem.

6.     The next step will be repeated until you have used all of your petals.  Put a small amount of glue onto each petal bottom and wrap it around the base of your flower, building your rose. 

7.     You can crease the bottom of some petals to get them to stick out or curve as desired.