How to Make Paper Flowers

What You Need

Petal Template: I sketched mine out, but you can print some super fun ones out here

Cardstock Paper : To make a three petal flower, you will need a total of 8 pieces

Optional: 2 green pieces of paper 

Scissors

Pencil/Pen

Glue Gun & Glue Sticks

Push Pins

How To Prepare Your Petals

1. Take 6 pieces of cardstock paper, fold them in half hamburger style and then cut right along the fold. You will end up with 12 pieces for the large and medium sized petals.

2. Take another piece of cardstock paper and fold it in half hamburger style and then again hot dog style. Cut each square up to end up with 4 pieces.

3. Take the last piece of paper and fold it in half hot dog style.  Cut along the fold first, then take one half of the paper and fold it in half hamburger style to end up with two squares.  Put these two pieces with the last 4 - these little ones make the small petals. 

4. With the other piece, simply cut straight lines to create a fringe stopping about 3/4 of an inch away from the edge

Outline, Cut & Curl

1. Take the 12 larger pieces of paper and outline a total of 6 large petals and 6 medium petals

2. Take the 6 smaller pieces of paper and outline 6 small petals

3. Cut all of these petals out

4. Towards the bottom of the petals, make a 1/2 - 3/4 inch cut as shown in the photos below

5. To curl the petals, take a sharpie pen or marker and simply roll the top of the petals backwards. You want the petals to go back and not inwards.

How to Put Together

1. Where you made a cut towards the end of the petals, take each one and overlap the cuts and glue down.  To glue, you'll need to dab some glue from the glue gun on one side of the cut and then take the other and put it right over the glue. When overlapping, remember to form a sort of bowl-like shape.  See photos for a reference of what it's supposed to look like. 

2. Repeat this step with every petal.

3. To connect the petals, you'll simply want to dab glue towards the edge of one petal, take another and connect it.  When doing this, the most important part is to form a circle in the center of the flower.  Simply follow this circle shape when connecting the petals and you'll be good.  

4. Repeat this step with every layer of petals.

5. Once you have three layers of petals ready, start with your largest and place it over scratch paper.  

6. Take the medium sized petal layer and dab glue around the bottom backside of the petal layer. avoiding the hole.  When you have enough glue, sit the layer inside the largest layer of petals and press down.  

7. Take the smallest layer of petals and repeat this same step.  Let the flower sit.

8. Take the fringe piece of paper you made and begin rolling in to make a tube.  Glue the inner edge as you roll.

9. The flower should be complete but you should see a hole in the middle of the flower still.  Cut out a scratch piece of paper (stick to a small square) and glue it to the back of the flower to cover this hole.

10.  Take the fringe tube you made and dab glue all along the rim multiple times. Place the tube right in the center of the flower and press down.

11. Finally, you'll need to separate the fringe and you're all finished.

Optional

If you would like leaves, simply sketch out a large leaf fitting the entire piece of cardstock.  You will simply cut these leaves out and decorate how you would like.

How to Pin

To pin your flowers and leaves, you can use push pins, painters tape or any other adhesive that isn't too harsh to your walls.  I regularly use push pins and that usually works right away without any issues.  

Anyway, I know putting paper flowers might seem like it involves a thousand steps.  Just remember, sketch your petals, cut them out, cut the bottom of the petals, overlap the cuts, glue each petal to each other, stack on top of each other with glue, create a fringe flower center and then glue.  Okay yeah, that sounds difficult but trust me, it's a lot easier done than said!

Let me know if you have any questions at all.  If you do make these, please post a picture of what you created!

Xo..Melissa Victoria