How to Make Paper Flowers

Bloom All Year Round: A Guide to Making Beautiful Paper Flowers

Learn how to make stunning paper flowers that last a lifetime! This easy-to-follow guide covers everything you need to know, from choosing the right paper to creating a variety of gorgeous blooms. Perfect for beginners and experienced crafters alike!

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Last week I shared our victorian bells that hung from a paper flower. Are you stunned it was made out of paper? Well, I did and you can too!

It was a really simple process. All of those project shares with toilet paper and toilet paper rolls after the toilet paper shortage was my inspiration. I think it was a sign that toilet paper was plenty again, and we were all rejoicing with projects using that precious commodity. 

I'd be lying if I told you I made these roses from toilet paper though. Even with the toilet paper deficit behind us, I do not think I will ever take it for granted. I think I am like my Grandma, always thinking, "waste not, want not."  

I like to think my idea is better than using toilet paper, and a more budget friendly idea too (do you shake your head like I do at toilet paper prices these days too?). So, let's get to figuring out how to make paper roses... you know, the easy way.

Attending parties in the past, do you recall seeing streamers hanging on the walls?Yep, I made these paper roses from party streamers! I picked an entire roll for $1.00, that's less than Dollar Tree! I was so pleased with myself. 

As I was cleaning up a mess in the basement recently, I came across one of my silicone molds, and I thought to myself: hey, you can totally use this silicone mold for the streamers to make pretty paper flowers. I was gob smacked, and thought to myself, what a great idea!

So that is exactly what I did, I pulled out a bowl, filled it with water, and then I placed pieces of streamer in the water. I rang out the water as best as I could, and began stuffing the mold with white streamers. 

Now, I will tell you this project went through many versions of itself before it was complete. I simply could not make up my mind what color to make the roses, and I finally ended up going back to white! Talk about a lot of wasted time. 

If you recall my beginner painting, I mixed up a lighter and darker color of purple to create dimension to my painting. I thought.... I will do that with my roses too. Only that didn't turn out as I saw it in my mind. It appeared to be more of a blob. So then I covered the roses all in pink paint, but I did not care for that either. I painted Mod Podge over the roses, and finally I went back to all over white, and I thought phew... finally, I have some pretty paper rose flowers. 

There is a method to my madness, and I will share it with you below.

Materials:

1. 1 small bowl of water
2. Party Streamers 
3. Silicone mold

Instructions:

• Fill small bowl with water
• Tear off long lengths of party streamers, place in water, ring out by patting the paper between your hands
• Place strips into silicon mold, layering until you reach the depth of flower you want
• Squeeze excess water from mold with streamers in it periodically, this lessens dry time
• Remove flower from silicone mold 
• Let try for approximately 48 hours or until dry to touch
• Paint with desired color of paint, I suggest purchasing different color streamers for different color flowers though
• Paint Mod Podge over flower to seal in paint and ensure paper is sealed for long lasting blooms
• Decorate how you desire

Note:

• You can purchase any color party streamer to create different colors of flowers. I chose white initially, but the possibilities are endless when you use party streamers! 
• You can wring out the paper by scrunching it up, but I found that by patting the water between my hands made a better flower. The paper molded to the silicone by patting than ringing it out, leaving a flower with more detail. Something I learned on my third time around.  
• I could not locate the exact mold I have since I purchased it about 10 years ago, but this rose mold is close (I'd prefer to be able to do multiples instead of one at a time as I did here), and here are other rose mold ideas for you as well. 

I was so busy creating a video, I forgot to take in process pictures.  

Here is where I went wrong, painting them!

Do you see my not so lovely paint color? Buy colored streamers. It will save you a headache.

I used one flower with our bells from last week, but plan to make more flowers with another idea in mind. There are so many ways to use DIY paper flowers... by the way, how budget friendly is this project? I have made paper flowers before, but these are a lot different than the ones I made in the past, and so much easier too! 

Well, what do you think? Will you be giving these paper flowers a try? I hope I was able to spark some inspiration for you today. Have a wonderful week friend!

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Ciao,

Cara