Day 29

DIY Saturday

Giant Fantasy Paper Flowers

Another great DIY on the blog this week- These add a little extra something to any event. So whimsical! 

We have these flowers through out the store, we even had them as props for our photo shoot with Mandy at Studio B on Monday. Last week we posted our Enchanted Forest line of headbands, we really wanted to create something along side of them and these fit perfect. Our whimsical daydreams of Enchanted Forests came to life with these Giant Flowers. 

Materials Needed :

For the flower base- 

~ Plastic Cups ( depending on the amount of flowers you need) 

~ Cement 

~ Branches - 2-3 Feet in length

For the Flowers -  

~ Wire

~ Tape & Glue

~ Scissors

~ Tissue Paper

~ Dried Moss

~ Twine or zip ties

Instructions :

To make the base or stem of the flower, first you must determine how many flowers you plan on making. Once you decide, mix the cement and pour in the coordinating number of plastic cups. Before you let it sit, stick a branch in the middle of the cup. Let harden. 

This next step is optional. We made a leaf for one flower, but you can add them to as many of the flowers as you want. Take your wire, ours was thin wire. Cut them into desired lengths and leave a little extra at the end to attach it to your branch or stem of the flower. For ours, I attached directly to the flower. Twist the pieces of wire together to form a leaf. Cut your tissue in to leaf shapes, make two pieces, top and bottom to go around the wire frame. 

Next, add glue around the outside of the leaf and place the wire leaf frame inside, then place the other tissue leaf directly on top. 

Scrunch the outside of the leaf, around the wire frame, as well as inside the leaf. This gives it a little more natural affect. 

On to making the flower. First cut the layers of tissue paper in to petals of various sizes. I chose 3 different sizes for these flowers, and a round edge. But be creative! And about 2-3 tissue PER petal. Since I chose 3 sizes, I cut 4 petals for the small, 4 petals for the medium and 3 petals for the large. 

This way it gives it a fuller look and your flowers look big!

Starting with the smallest petals, form them into a bouquet. I took 2 of the tissue sheets for the small petals and went from there, I had 8 total tissue sheets (2 per small petal). I gathered them with my hand and scrunched them up from the bottom until I got the look I was happy with. 

After scrunching them and creating the look I wanted, I taped this level of petals together, that way I didn't have to worry about them falling apart when adding the next petals. 

Add the next layer of petals together and tape at the stem. Repeat with the remaining layer. So all 3 layers are completed and taped!

Now that the petals are attached and taped to each other, we can start the middle. For the center of the flowers, cut out circles of tissue. Two different sizes are needed, and the edges can be roughly cut. 

Glue stick, tacky glue (or something similar) and dried moss. 

Scrunch together the edges of the circles. 

Dap a small amount of glue in the middle of the bigger circle, and attach the smaller circle. You can scrunch up some more of the sides once you attach them together. Just play with it and get the look you want!

Next, take a small amount of the tacky glue to the center of the circles. Add your dried moss and let dry. 

After you attach the dried moss, attach the center of the flower to the center of the petals with a little more tacky glue. Once you have that completed, start to scrunch the edges of the flower petals and curve them towards the center. This way you get a more natural look. Keep messing with the petals until you whimsical look is achieved! You can attach the flower stem to the branches with a zip tie or like we did with twine. You will noticed the stem of the flower (where you taped) will be pretty long. Use that part to wrap the twine or zip tie around.