For the wedding, we knew we wanted lots of flowers, but the cost of live flowers was too much and live flowers do not last. Paper roses seemed like the perfect solution. We ended up making over 250 of these flowers.
Materials
- Plain white paper ( We bought a roll of paper from Hobby Lobby)
- Watercolors (We used pearl tone paints)
- 1″ Foam Brush
- Thin wire
- Small beads
- Glue
- Scissors
- Wire Cutter/Needle Nose Pliers
Instructions
Cut your paper into a manageable size. 24″ worked best for us.
Paint the paper. The 1″ foam brush worked the best. Use lots of water. We used multiple pinks and peach colors from our water color set to add dimension to our flowers. Note that the paper will dry lighter than you think. You can paint one side or both sides of the paper. Let dry completely.
Painting
If you do not want to paint your own paper, you can use colored paper. Try to use paper about the same weight as printer paper. The heavier the paper, the harder it is to fold.
Cutting the Paper
Once your paper is dry, cut it into equal size squares. We used 5″ here, but 4″ and 3″ work if you want smaller flowers. You need 3 squares of paper per flower
Fold each square of paper in half on the diagonal.
Fold it in half again
And in half one more time.
Make a small cut at the corner of each folded paper to create a tiny hole.
Cut the other end of the folded paper into an elongated oval to create the petals.
When you unfold your papers, you should have 3 flower shapes each with 8 petals and a small hole in the middle.
Take one paper and cut out 1 petal.
Cut out a section of 2 petals from the next paper.
Cut out a section of 3 petals from the last paper.
When you are done, your papers should look like this:
Making the Flower
Take a small dowel and curl the ends of each petal. I used the paint brush from the water colors and it worked great.
After all of your petals are curled, you need to glue your each of your papers to make the layers of the flowers. Pick up one section and glue the cut side to the other cut side. The pictures below show what to do better than I can explain it.
While your flower layers are drying, cut 10″ of wire.
String the bead on the wire and fold the wire in half. Twist the wire by hand or use needle nose pliers. The wire will becom your stem and the bead will keep your flower on the stem.
Thread your glued up single petal on the wire until it stops at the bead. If you made your hole to big, add glue at the base of the petal and hold a few seconds to dry.
Add glue to the base of the single petal and thread the 2 petal section on the wire up to the first section. Try to make sure the petals do not line up. Add glue to the base and repeat with each section from smallest to largest.
When you are done, hang upside down for 10 minutes to dry.
Once your flower is done, you can make a bouquet, add leaves and a stem, or make a flower ball.
We used ours everywhere at the wedding.
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