How to Make Paper Flowers Using My Secret Sources of Inspiration

Would you like to know some of my secrets for making paper flowers? One of my secrets for making paper flowers comes from remembering my childhood paper-making lessons with my dear aunts. Here’s a reminder on how to make a flower from tissue paper, if you need one, or if you never learned how to make them in the first place.

How to make a fabric flower that looks like a carnation:

Start with a 2-ply tissue paper. Fold it in half lengthwise (along the existing crease) and cut it in half along that crease to end up with four layers of fabric. Leave the four layers stacked together.

Now start at one end of the length and begin folding the fabric back and forth in an accordion crease. Keep folding until all the fabric is pleated.

Next, take a piece of florist wire, or a piece of ordinary thread or a tie, and tie the fabric tightly in the middle of the pleated folds.

Then fan the pleats and carefully separate them to form a carnation. You can use chalk or stamp ink to outline your carnation petals, although I must admit I didn’t know about this last step as a kid.

How I make paper flowers now:

I guess making tissue paper flowers as a kid was one of the reasons that led me to be interested in paper making my whole life. My secret to making paper flowers now? Paper punches! I often make paper flowers with perforated shapes, like hearts and circles, and cut them out to look more like petals and leaves when I need them.

It is so much fun to make different flowers out of paper.

Something that helps me create new flower shapes is nature itself. I found that when I was studying live flowers, I could see that there were usually repeated shapes that made them up. If I looked at a flower petal, it often looked like a circle or an oval shape to me, or had a small indentation that suggested the shape of a heart. From this idea, I was able to drill out a shape that was close enough to the actual petal shape, and sometimes it would just take a little reshaping of the petal with my scissors to create a petal that looks like it was the flower type that I was. was looking.

It is the same when I look at the centers of the flowers, the leaves of the flowers and the buds. They all suggest basic shapes that I can make with my punches and scissors.

Another thing that nature has taught me is that flowers are not usually completely flat. They are usually three-dimensional in shape because the petals are hollowed or curved or folded or ruffled. Once again, nature teaches me what to do to make my flat shapes appear more realistic. I take a flower shaping tool and shape my petals and leaves with it, often before fully assembling my flower. It’s amazing how a small shape of the components of my flower can make it look even more realistic.

What to do with your paper flowers once you’ve made them:

I enjoy playing with paper shapes to see if I can make a paper flower out of them. I usually have a project in mind before I start making flowers, or colors, or a theme to guide my thoughts as I make my flowers.

I then use these creations on scrapbook pages and card faces, or even in gift wrap or to decorate 3-d (or off-page) projects. I am pleased to have a one-of-a-kind ornament to use when I’m making paper crafts.

So the real secret to making paper flowers goes back to the old saying “Make sure you stop and smell the roses!” In this case, I want to change the saying to remind you to also “Stop and LOOK at the roses.” A little time looking at real flowers can pay wonderful dividends for us paper craftsmen when we make our own paper flowers.

Happy papermaking!

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