Could you believe they’re crafted?
Here’s how to craft paper flowers that look freshly picked from a meadow
These delicate paper flowers come to life with crepe paper and a few crafting supplies. Craft your own bouquet of poppies, cornflowers, or billy buttons—or get a head start on hanami with cherry blossoms. This bouquet won’t wilt!
Choose crepe paper to match your favorite poppy—whether it’s pink, red, yellow, orange, purple, or white. Use five or six stamens for each flower. Keep some flowers more closed, and let others open their petals further for a natural look.
Paper flowers—pink poppies
Supplies:
- pink crepe paper
- pieces of sturdy wire, at least 25 centimeters long, for stems
- craft stamens
- small paper mâché balls, ø less than 1 cm
- black and yellow craft paint and a brush
- a hot glue gun and glue
- thin wire
- floral tape
- wire cutters.
Pink poppies—instructions:
- For each flower, cut four petals from crepe paper that are narrower at the base, about 2.5 centimeters wide at their widest point, and 2.5 centimeters tall in the center. Paint small paper mâché balls black, one for each flower, and let them dry. If your stamens are a different color, paint them black too.
- Using a fairly dry brush dipped in yellow paint, dab small yellow dots all over the paper mâché balls. Let the paint dry.
- Attach the paper mâché ball to the end of a wire by first squeezing hot glue inside the ball, then pressing the wire into the glue.
- Using thin wire or glue, attach a bundle of stamens to the stem, just beneath the ball, so that they surround it. Wrap the petals around them and secure the base of the petals to the wire stem with thin wire. Cover where everything meets as well as the whole stem with floral tape.
- Bend the stems to add movement, and open the petals with your fingers, focusing on their centers. The delicate petals of a poppy can curve in different directions on the same flower—mimic that when arranging your petals.
Make tiny cherry blossoms using light pink crepe paper and white craft stamens dabbed with red paint. The petals can be asymmetrical and vary in size. Fold the stamens in half as you assemble the flowers.
Paper flowers—birch branch hanami
Supplies:
- a birch twig (the more twisty, the better)
- light pink crepe paper
- white craft stamens
- dark red craft paint and a brush
- thin wire and wire cutters
- floral tape
- a hot glue gun and glue.
Birch branch hanami—instructions:
- Cut light pink crepe paper into small petal shapes roughly the size of the tip of your little finger, with the creases running vertically. You’ll need five petals per blossom.
- Paint the base of the petals with dark red craft paint, and use the same paint to add dots on the tips of the stamens. Let the paint dry.
- Fold three stamens in half, nestle five petals around them, and secure them firmly by wrapping thin wire around the base several times. Twist the wire ends tightly together to secure them in place. Cover the binding by wrapping floral tape around it, and pinch the taped end into a tapered shape.
- Gently open the petals with your fingers at the center of their outer edge, giving them a slight curve. Glue each flower onto the birch branch with hot glue. Make and attach as many blossoms as you like, until the branch appears to be in full bloom.
Examine real flowers and photos of them, note their details, and mimic them. By adjusting the instructions, you can create almost any type of flower with these materials—try assembling a whole lush bouquet! All supplies (except the skewers and turmeric) are from Søstrene Grene.
Paper flowers—cornflowers
Supplies:
- blue crepe paper
- pieces of sturdy wire, at least 25 centimeters long, for stems
- dark blue or black craft stamens
- thin wire
- floral tape
- wire cutters.
Cornflowers have a delightfully ragged look, so you’ll be doing plenty of cutting. Add variety by making some flowers with four petals, some with five, and some with six.
Cornflowers—instructions:
- Cut the crepe paper, vertically in respect to the ridges, into petals about 2.5 centimeters long, shaped like crow’s footprints. For each flower, you’ll need 4–6 petals plus one rectangle about 2.5 centimeters long and a bit over 1 centimeter wide. Fringe one of the long edges of the rectangle into very fine strips.
- First, wrap the fringed piece, fringe facing up, tightly around three stamens folded in half. Secure with a couple of twists of thin wire. Next, arrange five petals around the base and fasten them tightly with thin wire.
- Attach the flower head to a wire stem by winding thin wire around the entire base. Cover the binding and the stem with floral tape. Wrap more floral tape every ten centimeters or so to form joints along the stem. Bend the stem at these joints, and cut each stem to a slightly different length with wire cutters.
- Finally, use your fingers to flare out the tips of the crow’s-foot-shaped petals.
Paper flowers—a bouquet of billy buttons
Supplies:
- paper mâché balls, ø about 2 cm
- lemon-yellow craft paint and a brush
- a heaping tablespoon of turmeric in a small bowl
- wooden skewers
- floral tape.
These upright billy buttons are made of paper mâché balls in different sizes. After painting each one, roll it in turmeric.
A bouquet of billy buttons—instructions:
- Wrap a skewer in floral tape to make it green.
- Paint a paper mâché ball with a generous coat of craft paint, stick it onto the sharp end of the skewer, and roll it in turmeric. Tap off any excess turmeric over a sink, as stray turmeric can create quite a mess—much like pollen.
- Set your billy button in a vase to dry.
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