DIY Wedding

Crumpled Up: How to Make Paper Flowers

Jeffery Rudell, contributor

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A small strip of paper, painted yellow and wound around a pencil, creates a whimsical spiral for the flower centers.

Take a break from the straight and narrow by making this torn-paper picture. The edges are soft, but the impact is anything but.

Crease and tear. Then remove small wedges of paper to make spaces between the petals. Nip off the corners to further soften the shape.

A small strip of paper, painted yellow and wound around a pencil, creates a whimsical spiral for the flower centers.

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I am proud uncle to five beautiful nieces ranging in age from six months to 12 years. On weekends, we usually end up sitting on the floor of my studio with crayons and watercolors and stacks of paper. However, too often, fun time seems to end in frustration as the complaints start mounting: "I can't cut this straight"; "All of my pieces aren't the same size"; "Some of my red paint has gotten mixed with my yellow paint" and so on. Glancing around one afternoon, I suddenly realized that there were five little pairs of highly critical eyes who seemed vigorously engaged in comparing their own work with the work they saw all around them in my studio. Of course, I have years of experience (and a long list of demanding clients) to my credit, so my work differed wildly from theirs It was this comparing of skills that was leading to the sense of disappointment (and that's no fun at all).

So we had a little meeting, the six of us, and we talked about how unhelpful comparisons can be. I reminded them that everyone makes things in their own way, and that "different" is often the very thing that makes something "beautiful." We agreed that from now on we'd aim for unique instead of uniform, different instead of the same, and unexpected instead of predictable. Toward that end, we came up with some helpful rules to keep us focused on the fun while avoiding the frustration. For anyone crafting with children (and I highly recommend it since there is no better way I know of to get the creative juices flowing), I thought I might share with you a few of the guidelines we follow in my house whenever we sit down to create:

1. We always work with the materials we have on hand (be it paper, glitter, straws, candy wrappers, whatever).
2. Everybody is required to make at least one mistake (e.g., paint one petal the wrong color, cut the wrong shape, glue something upside down, etc.).
3. Before we begin, we subtract one thing. (e.g., no using the color blue today or no straight lines or no taking your crayon off the paper, etc.).

The results have been great. We've thrown out imitation and replaced it with exploration. Now instead of finding the "right" way to do something, we focus on finding a "new" way to do something. The exercise has yielded many an afternoon of delightful play and (as happens when children are involved) the lesson has carried over into my own work.

So, for today, I propose setting aside the cutting tools (well, mostly), closing the drawers containing all of your neatly stacked and uncreased sheets of fancy paper, and turning, instead, to your box of paper scraps and castoffs. Here's to working with what you've got.

Taking the Edge Off

I began with a stack of some paper disks I had left over from an earlier project. If you don't happen to have disks of paper sitting around your work table, feel free to cut a few (I had 5 large and 5 small) using scissors or a craft knife (I won't tell anyone you cheated).

Fold each disk in half and then again, into quarters. Unfold.

Using the creases in the paper, make 4 tears in the disk (leaving about 1 inch of space in the middle of each circle). Make an additional 4 tears to give you an evenly spaced 8 petals total. Next, tear about 1/4 inch of paper from the left side of each of the 8 petals you just made. By removing these little wedges, you will give each petal a little space to breathe.

Finally, tear off the corners on each of the 8 petals as indicated below.

Crease and tear. Then remove the small wedges of paper to make spaces between the petals. Nip off the corners to further soften the shape.

To add some three-dimensionality to the flowers, put your paper disk, face down, on the table, and place a finger at the end of the petal as indicated below. Using your other hand, pinch up the edges of the petal. Repeat for all 8 petals.

A medium-heavy watercolor paper has great texture and holds a crease nicely.

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Comments (13)

ToyTasting writes: This is a great idea. Loved it!
Posted: 11:40 pm on May 23rd

Natasha16 writes: how wonderful! torn edges..crumpled...painted with good old water colour. i certainly love you.
Posted: 5:41 am on January 17th

Nil writes: This is Beautifully artsy crafty. Will make some with my class~
Posted: 11:27 pm on March 20th

sigridsoto writes: Iv been looking around at the paper craft section on this site and ever single one i really liked is created by you
Posted: 5:23 am on October 12th

pe6teern writes: beautiful!! and thanks for the well written and displayed instructions. Can't wait to try them.

Posted: 12:29 pm on September 19th

craftiretiree writes: These will make beautiful gift cards changing the flower colors to match the seasons. Just beautiful with the best instructions ever written! Thank you!
Posted: 7:49 pm on September 6th

Nightcats writes: These are quite remarkable. I plan to make some asap.
Posted: 3:42 pm on September 6th

eveh writes: These are beautiful. I can't wait to try them. I will do them in yellow's and burgundy. Thank you for showing us how to do this. : )
Posted: 2:56 pm on September 6th

veryjeri writes: I think these rules would work well for life, not just crafts! The instructions are really easy to follow. I'll bet the flowers look different if you make them sitting on the floor instead of a chair. Thanks! I'll give these a whirl today.
Posted: 12:44 pm on September 6th

LAURAMCHUGH writes: Flowers are beautiful, love the torn edges and the addition of watercolors, you can really make it your own special arrangement for that special gift. Great project and great directions. Thanks
Posted: 4:49 pm on July 10th

sarahwww writes: Ack!! No edit button! Sorry, I bet Uncle considers himself very lucky!
Posted: 7:16 pm on July 8th

sarahwww writes: Love the flowers and the Rules! What a lucky bunch of creative young gals! I'm bettin' Grandpa thinks he is pretty lucky too!
Posted: 7:14 pm on July 8th

SusanElizabeth writes: How gorgeous are these! Love them.
Posted: 5:53 am on July 7th

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