Instructions for making flowers from various types of paper, along with tips on how to fold, cut and decorate the flowers.
Most people have folded a fan out of paper at one time in their life, and tissue flowers begin with the same technique. Lay the stack of tissue paper on a table in front of you and start by folding the tissue paper up about an inch, then creasing it well. Turn the stack of paper over and fold the previous fold over one inch, creasing well. Continue in this manner until the stack has been folded many times, accordion-style. Now fold the entire strip in half. Use pinking sheers or scissors to cut any design you want to on the ends. Don't cut the fold, but cut the ends to a point, rounded, or any design you want. If the paper is too thick, but one end, then the other, and then fold in half.
Go up from the fold about an inch and tightly wrap twine, wire or even tape around the base. Now begin separating each layer of paper from the next, fluffing them as you go along. This will take awhile, but have patience and it will be lovely when you're done. After each layer has been separated, the flower is complete and you can now add floral wire to the flower to stand it in a vase, or use it like it is to place in a bowl with some other paper flowers. To enhance the flower, dribble paint on it, spray it with dye or use a small paint brush to touch the tips of the flower with color. Paper flowers can be made using foil papers, wallpaper, stamped paper, printer paper or just about any other paper, but the thinner the paper is, the easier it is to fold. On the other hand, very fine paper is easily torn during the separation of the sheets so look for paper that is sturdy, yet thin enough to fold easily.
You can vary the look of each flower by layering the paper first with a solid color, then a print, or you can use one paper, then a foil sheet, and so on. To make tiny flowers, start with a stack of papers that are only 4 or 5 inches wide. You can go even smaller than that, but the separation of the papers will become more and more difficult as the flower shrinks in size. When making small flowers or when crafting with thick paper, use only 4 or 5 sheets of paper rather than the 8 to 10 for the larger flowers.
A different type of paper flower can be made by cutting a 5" circle, then a 4", 3", 2" and a 1" circle. Fold each circle in half, and then cut the petal shapes into the paper. You can cut 4 petals, which will be 8 when unfolded, or cut 3 petals, which will be 6 when unfolded and so forth. Poke a hole in the middle of the largest circle, and then slide it onto the floral wire. Do the same thing with the 4" circle, and so on until all circles are on the wire. Turn the pieces to where the petals from the bottom paper alternate with the next paper and so on. After these are arranged, glue a small bead in the center, on the wire. You can make the flowers various sizes, and then set them in a nice vase. You can also use these flowers, without the wire, for attaching to other craft projects.
