DIY Wedding – Paper Flower Tutorial 1

The wedding countdown is well underway… I am up to my eyeballs with paper goodies. These flowers are going to make fantastic centerpieces. Making them is fun, and I have them in a variety of flower types. My new eclips* has become a very key part of the process – taking all the work out of cutting the flowers.

To create a centerpiece, you will need to start by making the flower picks. To go with our homespun theme, I decided to keep the sticks bare, and use only white paper. Of course you can paint the sticks to match or coordinate with your colors. Printed papers with small patterns also look very cute. This tutorial covers the daisy, which is a double flower.

Supplies

• bamboo skewers
• cardstock (60-80lb works best)  I used textured white cardstock
• die cut system (I am using the eclips and a variety of cartridges) you can also hand-cut flowers, but note… you will need a lot of them.
• hot glue and hot glue melting pot
• foam (I used a chunk of foam from packaging)

1.Begin by cutting out the flowers. Each centerpiece I am doing requires about 30 picks total. For each of these daisy picks, you will need two pieces. Cut your flowers in various sizes around 3-4″. For double layer flowers, punch a small hole in the center of half of the flowers.

2. Using your fingers or a ball tipped tool, gently shape the petals so that they curve a bit. You can do more shaping after the flowers are assembled as well.

3. Thread one flower onto a skewer. (The point of the skewer will be the bottom of the stem)

4. Dip the flat end of the skewer into the hot glue, twisting to create a small ball.

5. Push up the flower so that it is touching the bottom of the glue blob, then place another flower on the tip of the skewer. Try to leave about 1/4″ space between the layers.

6. Now just poke into the foam and let dry. Depending on how hot your glue is, you might need to hold the flowers in place for just a few seconds to keep them from sagging.

Also, if you dont like the way the glue blob looks, you can paint, or cover it with glitter. I left all mine as is. They dry clear and look like little beads. You can also decorate the centers of the flowers if you wish. For our flowers, I will be adding just a few crystal rhinestones. 

Stay tuned for a sneak peek at the center pieces and step by step instructions in creating beautiful paper flower arrangements.

*I will post a full review of the eclips die cut system after the wedding.

Tagged as: celebration, decor, die cut, DIY, DIY Wedding, Paper Dreams