Paper Flowers Tutorial

I love paper flowers.  They are vintage and romantic and so beautiful. I've always wanted to make them so for our teaparty I decided to give it a try.  I looked all over the internet to find a tutorial and I'm sure there is one buried somewhere but I couldn't find one I liked, so I made it up as I went.  If this is a little bit rough around the edges I apologize in advance.  

Things you will need.



The first thing you need is a template for the flower petals.  I drew my own and am happy to share.  

Templates:

Pointed Petals

Round Petals

You will also need:

Cardstock, whatever pattern or colors you like (I used scraps from my paper bin)

Wooden skewers ( I found mine at the grocery store)

Scissors

Brads medium sized (watch out these things are sharp)

Glue Dots 3/16in mini sized (my most favorite thing ever)*

3D foam stickers*

Double sided tape

*note: You can use double sided tape instead of these but the flower won't be as sturdy.

Step 1

After cutting out the template flowers trace them onto the back of your cardstock.  There should be six.  I just noticed that I only show five here but trust me there are six. If using different colors try to alternate colors between the different sized petals.  

Step 2 Yay there's six

Now cut out the petals from the cardstock.  You will have six and two of the large ones should be the same size. The extra one is to cover the back when you are done. 

 

Here are the brads.  Be careful with these I stabbed myself a couple of times.

Step 3 front

back

Push a brad through the smallest petal on the colored side. Continue to push it through each size going from smallest to largest.  There should be 5 layers when you are finished. Then turn the flower over and carefully bend the brad prongs to the sides (this is where I impaled myself). 

Step 4

Take the wooden skewer and attach two glue dots to the end about a half inch apart.  You may use double stick tape instead of glue dots, but it won't adhere quite as well.  Glue dots are so great.  They have the strong stickiness of glue and you don't have to wait for them to dry, just peel them off of thier paper roll and apply to any surface.  I love glue dots. 

Now place the wooden skewer on the blank side or your extra cardstock petal.  The pattern should be on the outside 

side

Step 5 back

Place foam stickers on the layer with the back petal and the stick attached to it.  Make sure they are on the blank side where you attached the stick.  Then place the five assembled flower petals on top of the back petal with the foam stickers. It will looke something like this.

almost done

Now for the leaves.  If you would like to stop here you can.  The leaves are just something a little extra.

step 6

The leaves don't have to be green.  That's just the color I chose.  Take a small sheet of cardstock and draw a moustache looking shape on it.  Cut it out and fold it in half and trim the edges so they are even.  This is can be your template for more leaves or if you are just making one flower then stop here. 



step 7 and done



Take the moustache/ leaf and place double sided tape on one half of the blank side.  Then lay the wooden skewer in the middle of the leaf and fold the leaf over and around the skewer.  Press firmly and voila your leaf is attached.  You might have to do a little trimming around the edges of the leaf to even it up, but otherwise your done.  Oh yes and I also bent the petals up a little bit to give it some depth.  You don't have to do this either but it looks pretty.  Congratulations, lots of cutting and 6 hours later you have a beautiful paper flower.  Just kidding I think it took me an hour or maybe 30 minutes. 

Just in case you missed the templates buried in the post somewhere I've attached them here too. 

Pointed petals

Round Petals

Hope this is informative and fun.

Sunny