Beautiful and easy handmade paper flower

Hello all you creatives out there! I just wanted to give you all a quick and easy way to make some great paper flowers for use in all your mixed-media projects.

Today, I will be showing you just one flower. I will be making a few but the only difference is the colored papers. You will get to see all of them in an upcoming project, so stay tuned.

You will need:
Paper - I am using a selection of patterned handmade paper, however, you can use any thin weight paper, even magazine pages.
Cardstock - I used purple and green.
Buttons - coins - stick on gems
Glue
Gelatos

 

These are the color sets I chose. Most of the paper is mulberry type except for the purple and green, they are cardstock thickness.

 

The best part about making these flowers is that you don't have to be accurate with your cuts. Flower petals in nature are not all the exact same size and shape so this is not a fussy cut project. I cut strips of paper the height I want the petals to be so they will at least be close to the same. Cut your petals in whatever shape you like. Wide, short, tall, etc. You just need to be sure you have at least 1/4 inch on the smaller petals and 1/2 inch on the larger petals. This is so that they can be folded as shown later.

 

 

All petals, base, leaves cut free-hand. Buttons glued on top of each other. 
 

Now for some fun! Take all of the petals and scrunch them up. It softens the paper and gives the final flower some texture.

 



                        

 

Now, it's a bit messy, but I smear a little bit of glue on both sides of each petal. Now fold, pinch and scrunch the petal end. See below.

                   

 

Here are all my petals, scrunched with the ends glued.

 

Now I begin to attach the petals in layers, beginning with the largest first. 



 

After the last layer of the petals have been glued on I let it dry for a bit.



 

Finally, I add the leaves and the buttons I have pre-glued and use a bit of gelato to the edges of some of the petals and smudge it a bit. This adds some extra depth to the finished flower.  I hope you try some of these for yourself. You can use these on so many projects; altered arts, journaling or art canvases. The beauty of them is you can make them as large or small as you like, since it's all free-hand cutting. This finished flower is approximately 4.5 inches wide. I like all sizes and the others will be smaller.

 

 

 

Stay tuned to see how I use my flowers!

 

Hugs!

Jen R (Dog-Ma Studio) for AlteredPages.com