Thursday, May 31, 2012

Paper Flower Tutorial


Close-up of bouquet.


Finished bouquet.


Enough time has passed that I can now tell how we made 900 paper flowers for my nieces wedding reception. 

My sister's first child gave her mom 3 weeks to plan and execute a wedding for 300 guests.  Her first son gave her 3 hours to get dressed and to the radio station to see him married.  Her second son gave her a 3 year warning.  So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the bride in the above picture gave her mom a 3 month deadline!  Three months and only 200 guests would be easy.  My sister has helped with many weddings and other social events and can do anything!

So they started out with a wedding without flowers.  I don't know exactly why but it does seem sad watching the flowers die afterwards and she wanted an uncommon flower, something like a windflower. Not to mention wedding flowers are expensive!   So a travel on a train theme was decided on, circa 1940s.  Then she saw a bridal bouquet made of  paper flowers.  My sister is a paper artist so this was perfect!  The  bridal bouquet above has over 100 paper flowers and is amazingly beautiful.  Next she wanted all the bridesmaids to carry smaller bouquets in light purple and white.  They started making them when it was decided to not have bridesmaids.  So why not just use them on the tables at the reception.  So suddenly hundreds of flowers needed to be created,  So we had people punching scalloped hearts fom white and light purple paper.  Others making the flowers and my sister doing it all and made the bouquets all by herself.  In the end we had 15 1/2 bouquets for the reception tables.  The flower design was created by my sister Pattie and I have her permission to create the tutorial.  I suggest you visit her blog, it is a real treat! 
http://paperplates-pjbeach.blogspot.com/

Table centerpieces at the wedding.  Travel theme included old suitcases
picture of couple with an old train, paper flower bouquet and
congratulations banners to wave as the couple leaves.

Enough rambling, now for the tutorial.

What you will need for a flower, scalloped hearts of the
same size, a thin stick or dowel and a hot glue gun.


Step 1: Punch or die-cut 10 to 12 scalloped hearts the same size.  You may want to use scrap paper first before cutting a  lot of hearts.  I used the Spellbinder's scalloped heart to cut the petals out because it has 6 heart sizes..  But if you are going to make a lot of flowers Pattie suggest a punch because it is faster.



Step 2:  Next with hot glue adhere the dowel to the side of heart.  Make sure the dowel is below the top of the heart.  As you see in the picture, you can use miscuts for the center.



Step 3: Roll the paper around the dowel and glue the shape closed.





Step 4: Glue the flower to the middle of the second heart. Always make sure that the flower is glued to the next petal slightly above the heart. 



Step 5: Roll one side of the heart loosely around the flower to the center and then the other side around that.  The reason that the flower is glued to the middle of this heart is that it forces a space around the center of the flower.  Glue the petal closed.  At this point you may need to pinch the bottom of the flower and put extra glue on the bottom to hold it in place,



Step 6:  Glue the bottom of the next heart to the flower, seam side edge into the glue.    Make sure the flower is slightly above the top of the heart.  Roll one side of the heart then the other and hot glue in place,  I put a small amount of hot glue near the edge of the heart.  Think of this like adding a tube around the center.  From the top you should see some space but not a lot.  Just like looking into a rose.  Continue telescoping the flower it is important to the look..

Step 7: Keep adding petals by gluing at the bottom of the flower and glueing it closed around the flower center.



Step 8: Eventually you will need to add two petals at a time because the width of the rose.  Just like before centering a new heart over the previous petal edge and glue at the bottom.

Step 9: You can stop at anytime, adding more petals for a larger flower.  By now it should look like a flower.  Be sure to glue the flower edges to stabilize the flower.





Finished flower.

The individual flowers look a bit strange alone.  This is because of the telescoping.  For individual flowers I would not telescope them,

Putting it together.

Pattie glued a styrfoam ball to a candlestick.  Then glued flowers to the ball keeping thr round shape.  The flower dowel needs to be cut off short because long ones will keep other flowers from being set into the styrfoam.  it is a bit tricky, perhaps Pattie will be up to making a tutorial!

I hope this was helpful.  Please let me know if the instruction are clear.  I would love to see what was made with the tutorial.

Enjoy your crafting.

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