DIY Wedding

Crumpled Up: How to Make Paper Flowers

Pin It

Jeffery Rudell, contributor

51 users recommend

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.

Add Comment
Print

When all 8 petals have been creased, turn the flower over as illustrated. This is the basic flower shape we'll be working with. Repeat these steps to make 5 large flowers.

After shaping the edges, turn the piece over and paint the front surface.

Paint your flowers. I chose vivid blues and purples and painted the edges of the flowers a different color than the faces of the petals. You may choose whatever palette most appeals to you, but I intended to mount these all on a white background, so I choose vivid colors to enhance the contrast and help accentuate the irregular edges of each piece.

I applied two different colors to each petal—one shade to the edges and another to the face of each flower. I encourage a loose (some would say, sloppy) application of paint in keeping with our theme.

For the smaller flowers, I used the same technique as above, only this time I didn't remove the wedges between the petals and I creased each petal all the way down its center instead of just its tip. Again, I chose to paint the edges and the faces of each petal using different colors.

For the smaller flowers, I didn't remove the wedges or nip off the edges. See what variations you can come up with on your own.

Add Comment Print

Sun-Printed Wedding Invitations  

Back to List

Video: Make a Basic Bead Dangle

Comments (11)

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

You must be logged in to post comments. Click here to login.