Paper Flower Madness {A Tutorial}

They can be called flowers or snowflakes, even star bursts or sea urchins.

  

No matter what they look like after being Edward Scissorhanded, I LOVE making them (and I think you will too).

 

This looks like a wreath, but it isn't.  It actually has 4 sides, isn't that exciting?

      

After being enchanted early this summer, by the May 2009 Anthropologie catalog, with boats and twinkling lights, and especially the Magpie Chandelier -

 

I knew, I had to try to make something magpie-ish myself at some point. 

Enter paper flowers... (click on images for much better view)

      

As I said, this little paper flower contraption looks like a wreath in my photos, but it really is not because it has 4 surrounding wires covered in flowers, more like a chandelier. 

I used clear packing tape (strong stuff), to tape the flowers to the wires from the inside.  Then I used double sided tape, to tape another flower behind each front facing flower, to cover the original packing tape that is only slightly visible.

      

This is the 4 wire contraption I made, and then stuck flowers all over the wires...

      

It's really fun in person, and I think Mister Lovee (based on his comments) might even try to steal it when I am not looking ;)  Maybe he wants to decorate his workshop, tee hee...

      

I thought, if you wanted to make one yourself, I could show you how I make these fun little paper flower urchin thingamabobs?  

        

I start with 1 full piece of scrapbook paper that I cut into 4 smaller pieces This is the size I like to work with, but you can make them bigger per your preference. (I also like to use wrapping paper)

I then take one of the 4 little pieces an fold it into a triangle, cutting off any excess...

 

I take my triangle and fold it in half, making another triangle...

   

The next step is to fold the right side in towards the center...

   

And the left side folds away towards the center as well, giving you a "V" shape...

 

You then cut off the upper points, like so...

 

You have what is a bit of a cone shape now, to play with...

  

Experiment cutting into the top and the sides all you want.  I think that is the funnest part, the experimentation factor...

  

Then open it it up to find... Ahhh yes, a sea urchin flower ;) 

  

Or a snowflakey flower... 

  

Trial and error is the name of this paper flower game... 

      

If you don't already make these, I hope you enjoy doing so.  I can get lost in paper cutting.  It is so relaxing and addicting.  (My photos are a bit funny because it is so cloudy out)

  

Last winter, Holiday 2008, I had a blast making these, and I still have not taken them down...

      

So, try your own magpie creation, I'd love to see what you come up with.  A super fun project for any time of the year...

      

My Grandma and I loved making these paper flowers together during the holidays and now she is making them on her own.  I also showed her how to make the coffee filter wrist corsage, and she has become a coffee filter wrist corsage maker extraordinaire.  She has gifted them to oodles of people for special occasions.  I gave her a bunch of paints and sparkles when I saw her on Father's day so she can go even wilder making them.   

I hope you enjoyed this wee tutorial ;)

 

♥,V

 

ps:  I wanted to share some of the wonderful treasures that have filled my mailbox lately.  SO many talented folks out there in the great big world.  Today I am sharing a magical piece of artwork - photography that Sadira thought up and Rich Charpentier  magically photographed (as he is a professional photographer) for the Mad Tea Party.  I am told you can get your own right here...  Boy oh boy, this is goooooood!!  Great collaboration you two!  WOW!

      

pss:  Mister Lovee took me through a tunnel into desert wonderland on Friday night...  I don't want to bore you silly with it, but I will share some pics next time ;)  xoxo, V 

Comments

[karin]

Oh those flowers. I used to make hundreds of those kind of flowers as a child. Although I don't think I had that kind of pretty paper at hand :-) But still: It brings back sweet memories!

[Dena Miller]

Hi Vanessa,
You are so creative! I love to read your blogs and look forward to see what your next post will be about. Your pictures are also amazing!!! I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed being a part of the Mad Hatter Tea party! I would love for you to visit my blog again at http://blogs.myspace.com/miladyleela I am looking into getting another blog site that would be easier for people to find me...I'll let you know when I get that started.
Much love,
Dena

[Maria-Thérèse]

What I like even more than the flowers is the end of this sentence: "My Grandma and I loved making these paper flowers together during the holidays and now she is making them on her own. "

because my thoughts jumped mid-sentence, I thought "oh no, Vanessa's grandmother died" but it turns out she is happily making paper flowers. Love it.

[cindy]

love those flowers!

[vivian]

i love your flowery creation! looks like a lot of work cutting out all those flowers, though well worth it! thanks for showing us how you did it!
have a great monday!
vivian

[Rhonda Roo]

YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!
I love you I love you I love you!!

I have been *praying* to the Goddess of Insane Creativity and Craftiness Galore that you would provide a paper flower tutorial and here it is!

So glad I called in today.OOPS.
Er, I mean, so glad I wasnt feeling well,{fakes a cough}.

Now I can make flowers all dayyyyyyy

THANK YOU!!!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

[Dee]

Vanessa,
Those are really really cute! I have a son, so don't think he'd have fun making these, but I may have to volunteer with the girl scouts at church to do this project, thanks for the tut!

[Maggi]

What a great tutorial, can't wait to try this one out!

[nisipici]

Ooooh la la! Yes, I've made snowflakes like that (I used to climb on desks and hang dozens of them from the ceiling of our office around the holidays) but never used patterned paper to turn them into flowers! Thanks for the ideas and I LOVE your wire/flower creation!

[Kris]

It's so weird that you decided to show a tutorial for these! I saw them in one of your last posts and they intrigued me. I went searching through your blog for maybe a post about them I had missed (found one in June but alas, no tutorial.) Even showed my dd, because she is so handy. I figured we could attempt them. Thanks for the tutorial! I'm making a flower garland out of them! Love your choice of papers too.

[Cassandra]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this tutorial! I'm going to have to make my own paper flower chandelier... Thanks so much pretty V!

[aubreeze]

i love that flower print paper!

[sadira]

V you are an absolute doll...it's so fun to pop over and see myself on your blog! I'm so pleased you liked the canvas...it was our pleasure to send one to you! And, I am loving the flowers/snowflake/urchins...I never in my life thought of making them from such finely decorated paper...just exquisite!!

[michelle]

I haven't been over to comment in ages! It has been somewhat crazy here. Love this idea, you know Brittany and I are going to try this! I love any good project that will keep me in with my air conditioning these days! Have a great day! Hugs!

[Pink Trees and Sunshine]

Ooooh, what fun! I think this could be a new obsession :~)

[Rachel]

These are GORGEOUS! I love that you used them for the holidays, what a beautiful package decoration/garland/tree ornament. LOVE! I'll be linking.

[Stephanie]

It's snowing bright colorful summer snowflake flowers...fabulous!

oh how I LOVE anthropologie for wonderful inspiration! thank YOU for sharing.

fantastic tea party photo!!!

x..x

[Krista Komis]

OOh I love your sea urchin flowers!! They remind me of when I was little and used to make paper snowflakes, but yours are more colorful and *eeks* I can't wait to make some! (Look what you've done now, you've created a paper cutting flower making maniac) I'm off to do some right now! :D You just have the best ideas ever.

[Amada Lebel]

Love this, it is magical. Just found your blog from Tristans and I have enjoyed running through the pages. You are so talented! I am adding you to my "Favorites" and to my blog
Amada
www.overthetopstudios.typepad.com

[Erin Prais-Hintz]

We had such fun with paper flowers this spring. When my darling daughter the Tiny Dancer was the star student in April I brought in all manner of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and we went to town! I would disagree with the commenter who said the son wouldn't do it...you should have seen the boys go wild for this! They had so much fun, I left all my supplies for the teacher and they came back the next week and made more! It was just in time for Mother's day and they had a blast! I like these urchin-y spine-y creations a lot and think that the scrapbook paper that I horde might find a new home! And I think it would be great to layer with the tissue to make even more flutter-y goodness. You are such the creative diva Miss V! Love you!
xox
e

[Meghann]

That is PERFECT! Oh my gosh, thank you for sharing, I had never thought of these delightful little flowers, how creative you are :)
I'm going to make a bunch of them for my birthday party in September - I wanted to have a Mad Tea Party in my backyard and these would be perfect :)
Have a great day,
Meg

[SueAnn]

What a fun paper project....they are so pretty! And full of color and light. Which I am also on the look out for.
My hats off to Grandma...she rocks!!!! You must show some of her creations when she is done!
Hugging you
SueAnn

[YSLGuy]

I watched Edward Scissorhands last night, so I love the reference.

These are wonderful, and I might have to try my hand at a few.

[tricia]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! These are so beautiful and I can wait to try making them!

[karin]

oh Miss V!
I am on the road this week and all my craft things (paper scissors, sparkles, etc) are waiting for me at home...its going to be a long week!
Sitting in a hotel room is not that inspiring...but maybe I can try and make something fun with the things I find in the room...hmmm, I may have just been inspired.

I'll let you know if I come up with anything good!

xoxo
~karin

[Kylee]

V~

So colorful and pretty!! Inspiration a plenty....I'll give it a try :-) Have a great week Miss V!!

Kylee

[oldflowers4me]

oh -i so love it-its magic..

[Lisa Swifka]

These are certainly bright and cheerful! I remember doing something similar in school. From wreath to a garland or on top of packages.....endless possibilities and sweet of you to share.
That photo from the tea party is AMAZING!!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxo

[AForestFrolic]

Rock on Ms. Vanessa, thank you again for another wonderful tutorial! I have always loved making paper snowflakes but I like the way you fold it and turn them into flowers and sea urchins and such. My girls will just LOVE this...what a fun summer-time activity! That Tea party picture is amazing too!

Jamie :)

[Shell]

I remember the couple from the Tea Party. I loved the beauty and richness of their pictures.
Ah, your flowers are beautiful. Be really to decorate some in my room especially to coordinate with the seasons.
You must share your desert wonderland experience. Deserts are my favorite part of the meal.

[Vanette Hawke]

thanks for the tut, Im new to this page so I was very impressed im going to make them for work to brighten up our windows for spring. I work in an old peoples home so they will cheer every one up
thanks V

[Bootsie Wevon]

I think I'll try making these. I have lots and lots of scrapbook paper on hand, since I LOVE to scrapbook! :)

[Silke]

These look amazing! Thanks for sharing the "how to" with us! I'll be experimenting with them this week!! Thanks!!! :) Silke

[Sidereal]

Fun Flowers!
I love the Anthro catalog, I keep ordering it but can't seem to get them to send one. (Insert me pouting)
Have a lovely day,
Lynn

[flutterbyblue]

On this very rainy afternoon I went and bought a pack of colorful two-sided craft paper. Am now armed with a pair of scissors and some of your creative inspiration! These pretty sea urchin flower thingees are so pretty! I think I might assemble some sort of wall-mobile to display them. Thank you for sharing such a wonderfully creative idea!

[kristinguillory]

ohh how wonderful you are...thank you for telling us how we can make some beautiful flowers..Im going to have to try that out very soon..yay...:)

[Lori Anderson]

I love that you shared how you made this -- I'm going to try it! I am!

[Donna]

I love the idea and tutorial...thanks!
I have so much scrapbooking paper and I'm affraid I'm not much into scrapbooking like I use to be.This will be great to use it up...yee!

[kayellen]

So pretty Vanessa!!

You have inspired me to play with paper:))))

Smiles,
K

[Teresa in California]

You are so sweet Vanessa for sharing these lovely paper flower photos with us and then showing us how to make them. I love working with paper and scissors, origami boxes were my specialty growing up as a kid. I would store all my little treasures in them. These flowers would look lovely with a paper mache or gesso finish and glue them onto boxes or whatever. I love the wire contraption that you created to show off the flowers and it does resemble a wreath. Thank you for sharing your creativity.
Teresa

[gillian]

I love these! I will haul my butt to Michaels for scrapbook paper, and make these toot sweet! xoxo
(toute suite!)
xoxo

[Queen of Dreamsz at dream kingdom]

Oh my! I love, love these snowflaky whimsical flowers. :0) How fun....there are lots of free snowflake patterns online....now I'm inspired...thanks so much for sharing this wonderful fun idea.

Have a great week and drop by for a visit anytime,
Stephanie

[MyThoughtsMyVoice]

Thanks for sharing Vanessa. Hhhmmm I think I can do it. I'll try something later out of ordinary paper and we shall see LOL I would love these flowers to be on top of gifts. Pretty and colorful.

Li

[Gabriela]

Hello Miss Vanessa,

These flowers are fabulous!

~ Gabriela ~

[Paris Parfait]

Haven't made flowers or snowflakes like this since I was a child. So much fun! Thanks for the tutorial. Oh and that Mad Tea Party photo - fantastic! xoxox

[marjorie]

Oh!! Paper pretties for my day! Your such a sweet cakeling, indeed! Yours are so lovely!!

I'm back from my family-times and ready for much mischief!! ;) tee hee

Thank You for sharing such a pretty tutorial!!

[amanda]

i'm at work reading this post and before i knew it the scissors and a piece of scrap paper were in my hand.

thank you thank you Vanessa! for taking me back to my childhood while i'm stuck behind an adult desk. i'll be making more of these for sure, once i'm home with all my pretty papers.

[gemma]

Hi,
The snowflake pattern makes pretty flowers.
Love that!
I met Sadira at the Tea party. She lives in my old stomping grounds. She's awesome...
great photo!

[Robin]

Oh, how magically summerie they are....

I hope you have had a beautiful day today

[Johanna]

wanted to tell you that I couldn't even finish reading this post w/o grabbing the nearest piece of paper & cutting it up! My flower vase is now happily sitting atop my hand cut "lace" doily :)