How to Make Paper Flowers

I love entertaining! Whether it be on stage in a costume and heels or in my living room with wine and hor d’oeuvres. I love me a good event. From picking out an outfit, to deciding what music to play and how to set the scene. A few years back, I made my first set of paper flowers for a friend’s daughter’s sweet 16 birthday, and they were a hit! I have now officially made these awesome little lovelies for 3 separate events and I finally feel like I have gotten a handle on their construction. My most recent projects were for decorations for Lily O’ Lei’s and Sadie Vine’s big birthdays!

Here is what you will need:

• Paper
• Cardstock and Cardboard
• Scissors (NOT the damned fabric scissors!)
• Glue gun
• Glue stick (optional)

Instructions:
Alright! You will need to start with a color theme. You can use damn near any kind of paper you want, depending on what look you are trying to achieve. I have made some pretty awesome flowers with sheet music from old community theater shows from my past for a fun look. Decide what kind of flower you would like to make, and figure out a petal shape. Round-ish with a flat bottom usually works best. I like to use a minimum of 6 petals per flower and have done as many as 20, depending on the look I am trying for. Once you have your petals cut out, cut a slit from the flat bottom edge to just under half of the length of the petal.

Next, grab your cardstock and start working on your flower bases. I like to cut out circles in varying sizes ranging from about the size of a half dollar to about 4 inches in diameter. Do not worry about creating perfect circles. These bases are going to be covered by all of the lovely petals you created out of your paper. Set these aside.

Go ahead and plug in your glue gun. You will have a couple of minutes to spare before it is at temperature, so now is a great time to make yourself a drink. Once that bad boy is heated up and ready to go, grab your petals and get to work adding some dimension. Run a thin bead of glue down one side of the slit on a petal and then fold the other side over to create your 3D petal shape. Be sure to glue the same side on each of your petals.

After you have made it through your stack of petals, bring your round cardstock bases back into the mix. Now, start gluing one petal at a time to your bases. I have found that working from the outside of your base and moving in towards the center works best for most flower shapes.

Once you have all of your petals in place, it is time to add any further details. I love adding little stamens to the center.

These are easily made by cutting out a small rectangle of paper, gluing the outside edges together with a glue stick, and then cutting small little slits in the paper that stop just before the glued section. You can then roll the rectangle into whatever diameter cylinder you desire and affix it to itself using your glue stick. To attach your stamen, squeeze a decent sized pool of hot glue close to the size of your cylinder into the center of your flower. Et voila!

You can now add any other details you desire! Glitter, leaves, additional folds to add more dimension, etc..

These little lovelies make wonderful additions to tables, centerpieces, walls, or any other place that needs adorning!