How to make paper flowers

Easy paper flower ideas

Card tulips

Level: EASY

You will need:

A4 coloured and green card (in different shades of green if you like)
Green wooden lolly sticks
Scissors
Glue
Pencil

Step 1: Fold the coloured card (we chose cream) in half, then in half again and then in half twice more. Unfold and cut along the fold lines to give you 16 equal pieces. Stack these up and draw a tulip petal on the top one in pencil. Now repeat the process for the green card, folding into different fractions to give you different sized leaves. Stack them up and draw differently sized leaf shapes on the top pieces of card.

Step 2: Cut out all the hapes with scissors. You can do this in batches, depending on the thickness of the card, drawing around one of the cut-out tulip petals on the top card for each new batch and repeating this for the leaves. Once all the petals are cut out, fold each one in half along the vertical, as shown below. Don’t fold the leaves.

Step 3: Now glue two petals together along their fold so that the folded point faces upwards and they have a flat underside. Glue the flat side to the top of a green lolly stick. Glue two more petals together along their fold and glue their flat side to the reverse of the stick, lining up all the petals. Glue one or two leaves to the lolly stick stem. Paper tulips work well in a big bunch with lots of long leaves. Makes four.

Paper flower bouquet

Level: MEDIUM

You will need:

A6 (postcard size) green card
A4/A5 pink card
Scissors
Glue
Jam jar lid or glass
Pencil

Step 1: Fold the green card in half, then fold over again, then again. Unfold and cut into quarters along the fold lines – to give you four folded lengths.

Roll each one up to give you a slightly flattened stem. For a neat finish you can glue along the lengths, but if you want to avoid sticky fingers they also work just folded.

Step 2: Take a jam jar lid or glass and draw around it on the pink card.

Draw a concentric circle on it as shown below and cut it out, following the lines with your scissors.

Step 3: Roll up the spiral, starting from the outside and working inwards. This is much more straightforward than it looks from the end result.

Now unroll again and glue one of the stems to the start of the spiral.

Step 4: Reroll the spiral with the stem at its centre, tucking the final end under the roll to secure in place (there is no need to glue). Repeat with the remaining card and stems to make a little posie of paper flowers. Makes four.

Overnight magic greaseproof paper flower

Level: MEDIUM

You will need:

Greaseproof paper
Red food colouring
Mixing bowl
Little shallow bowl or shallow jam jar
Long wooden kebab skewer
Green pen
Scissors
Glue

Step 1: Cut a length of greaseproof paper about 60cm long. Fold it in half, then half again and half again. Unfold and cut into eight. Stack in a pile and draw a circle on the top one (you can draw around a small bowl or ramekin). Cut out the circles.

Step 2: Fill the mixing bowl about a quarter full of water and add a few drops of red food colouring. Submerge the pile of greaseproof paper and leave for about an hour. Ensure some water gets to all the layers but keep them stacked in a pile. Depending on the food colouring, you might want to wear disposable plastic gloves to prevent your hands from staining. While the paper circles are soaking, colour the skewer in with the green pen and set aside.

Step 3: When the paper circles have taken on some of the red colour (they will look peachy pink, not red), take them out of the water in one pile and squeeze in your hands over the bowl to remove excess water. You will end up with a scrunched up rose shape. Pop the rose into a little bowl or shallow jar in which it fits snugly (we used a rinsed out glass food jar) and leave to dry overnight.

Step 4: When fully dry, it will be crisp and pale pink with mottled colour in places, just like a real flower. Glue the skewer stem in place at the back, tucking under a fold of paper so you can’t see the tip. Makes one.

Easy crepe paper flower

Level: VERY EASY

You will need:

A4 pink card
Ruler
Pencil
Pink crepe paper
1 green pipe cleaner
Scissors
Glue
Button (optional)

Step 1: Fold the card in half and half again to make vertical quarters. Cut out one quarter strip. Draw a 1cm deep line along the long length, then use the scissors to cut incisions about 1cm wide along the strip, cutting only up to the line you have drawn. Cut a square of crepe paper and scrunch up into a ball.

Step 2: Use a pencil to curl the thin, fringe pieces around it.

Once you have curled the whole way along, take away the pencil, bend the circle around so that the uncurled flat top overlaps and glue the top together to give you your flower head.

Step 3: Wrap the top of the pipe cleaner around the base of the flower head. You can now pop your crepe paper ball inside the flower head, moving it around to fill the space and cover the pipe cleaner.

Glue in place if needed. You can also glue a button into the centre, if you like. Makes one.

Preschool cupcake and straw paper flower

Level: VERY VERY EASY

You will need:

Two cupcake or muffin cases in bright colours
Paper or reusable plastic green straw
A6 green card
Glue
Scissors

Step 1: Fold the card into quarters and draw a leaf shape on one side. Cut out four leaves.

Step 2: Fold the two cupcake cases into quarters and tuck one inside the other. Glue the inner layer to the outer layer inside along one side so that the inside is secured to the outside.