I love to make paper flowers, all kinds and all sizes. I usually use my Cricut machine but I know a lot of people don't have the machine and or die cuts to make the flowers and it is really easy to make them by hand too. Let me show you how. Please be for-warned this tutorial has 11 photos to show you each step :)
First I want to show you the finished flower to you know what you are working toward:
First of all you are going to need a minimum of a piece of card stock. A pair of decorative edge scissors (optional), tweezers or quilling pen, clear glue, paint brush ( optional).
This is a piece of cs I cut to 3X3 for my medium sized flower.
Using my regular scissors I cut a spiral in a uniform width ending in the center as shown.
Using my decorative scissors I trim the outside edge of the spiral from the outer edge to the center. this will be the outer edge of the flower petal you will see. You can sponge it with color if you want at this point.
Because I wanted to soften the edge a little I used the bulb end of the paint brush to rub in a circular motion to gently break down the paper a bit and the edge of the flower may roll a little depending on how hard you press. I used a rubber embossing mat under the flower to help with the pressure.
The tools needed to roll the flowers are either a long needle nose tweezers ( these are from my serger sewing machine) or a quilling pen. A regular tweezer will work as well, but this is what I have :). You can also roll them by hand too, just remember to keep the roll tight.
You will start rolling from the end you cut to a point and this will be your flower center so try to keep it rolled fairly neatly, yeah don't look too closely at mine huh .It does not matter which way you roll, over or under, unless you have a front and back to your paper.
As you are rolling the flower you will keep the tweezer or quill pen tight in the center and roll around it keeping the flower as tight as you can around the base without tearing the cs, It will be narrower at the bottom than the top due to the spiral design. If the tweezer or pen comes out, you probably won't be able to put it back in, just roll it back up the best you can and continue, keeping it as tight as you can by hand.
This is what your rolled flower will look like after you remove the pen or tweezer before you have done any shaping, which you do by releasing the spiral a little and unwinding it from the center using your fingers, practice will teach you the easiest way to do this. You can always rewind it if it spirals out of control, don't ask me how I know.
This is the bottom of the flower that you will glue the spiral flower to so remember when you are cutting your original cut this is what you want to leave in the center.
This is what the bottom of the spirals will look when you get it all wound up and ready to attach to the base . I use a clear quick drying glue Aileens Clear Gel Tacky Glue making sure I spread a decent layer over all of the spiral layers or they will be loose and not stay firmly rolled. when dry. Once I have glued the spirals I lay it flat on the base circle and make sure I have it in a nice flower shape, hold it at top and bottom in the center to dry for a few minutes and then set it aside for a few hours to dry completely.
The flowers here are pretty much the same, the top two are both 3 inch squares, the one on the left I made a larger spiral to have fewer layers which will make it a taller flower as well. The one on the bottom is a 2.5 inch flower. You do everything the same just in a smaller square.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask. I love to make my own flowers and very seldom buy them, not just am I too cheap, I always run out late at night.
I hope you have enjoyed the tutorial on how to make your own flowers without having to have any fancy stuffs. I would love to see some flowers you have made using this tutorial :)
Have a wonderful creative day.
Cathy
