featured floral ?

Paper flowers can be made in any color or size to perfectly fit your space. Make a collection of large flowers to feature as decor for your wall or create smaller blooms for more delicate accents.

Crepe paper works best for this project, but you can also opt for tissue paper.

Let’s get started with the how-to, but don’t forget to pin this post for later.

step 01

make your template

Print the template (FREE DOWNLOAD HERE) on cardstock, and cut out each piece.

This flower is made using the template as-is, but you can scale up or down when printing if you want a smaller or larger flower.

Use the cardstock pieces to cut out the necessary number of petals from the crepe paper. The number of crepe paper pieces needed for each type is listed on the template piece.

Cut out the cardboard circle – If you use the template as-is, you’ll want a circle that is about 5′ to 6″ across.

step 02

prep your flower’s base

Start with the cardboard circle piece. Cut a circle halfway into the cardboard circle.

Work and bend the cardboard to relax the grooves until the two edges can be overlapped to form a dome shape.

Tape the edges in place with duct tape.

Wrap the entire dome with a square of crepe paper so that you can’t see the cardboard or tape and secure in place with hot glue.

step 03

assemble your flower’s center

Take pieces A and B which you’ve cut out from the crepe paper.

Fold each triangle in half from the base to the point – with the darker textured side of the crepe paper on the outside of the fold.

Secure with a drop of glue at the base of the fold. The yellow dots on the image to the left show you where to place your drops of glue.

You don’t want the triangle to be completely glued in half, but just a drop at the bottom so that the middle fold stays.

The piece will start to roll and form a star shape at the bottom as you fold and glue each triangle.

First glue down piece A, (which has 4 points that stick out from where the triangles were folded) in the middle of the dome at the highest point.

Wrap piece B around piece A and glue it down as you go. This piece has 8 triangles so one will fit between and behind each triangle from piece A. The end result is a cluster of tiny petals.

step 04

assemble your flower

Start with petal #1 Fold the petal in half long ways with the darker side of the paper to the outside and gently crease it.

Open the petal up and gently stretch the crepe paper starting in the middle of the petal outward to create a curved shape.

Put a thin line of hot glue at the base of the petal in the crease. Gently roll this end between your fingers to form a tube / worm shape.

Then form this shape backwards towards the outside to form a tiny “L” (see the third from left petal in the top image) – This is what you will use to glue the petals to the base.

Do the same thing to form each #1 petal. You’ll also do this to form all the different types of petals (#2 – #6)

next…

Take petal #1 (x8) and glue 4 of them to the base, just outside the little petal cluster you just made.

Space them out evenly on the top, bottom, left, and right. Glue the remaining 4 #1 petals between the first 4.

Do the same thing with the #2 (x16) petals – spacing them evenly around the circle of #1 petals.

Keep shaping and gluing each petal type onto the base in the same way and in order (type #1, #2, #3, #4…)

Dahlias have very symmetrical petals, so make sure to keep them evenly spaced and staggered when gluing them on.

pro tip:

You can either roll and shape all the petals first before gluing them to the dome, or you can shape each petal type, glue them down, and then move on to shaping and gluing the next set.

Each petal “row” gets glued on right behind the one in front of it. Here are a couple more tips:

PETAL TYPE #2 – (8 Petals): These should be glued on in the spaces between the #1 petals.

PETAL TYPE #3 – (16 Petals):  Glue on the first 8 in the same way as above, and the last 8 spaced between the first 8.

PETAL TYPE #4 – (24 Petals): Glue on in the spaces between each of the #3 petals. Then glue the remaining petals on evenly and in the spaces that are less filled out.

PETAL TYPE #5 – (8 Petals): These are glued on in the same way as #1 – Top, Bottom, Left, Right, then between each of the first 4.

PETAL TYPE #6 – (8 Petals):  Glue on between each of the #5 petals

step 05

create a loop on the back for hanging

Form a loop with the string and knot it.

Tape or glue it to the back of the flower — I recommend gluing then securing with tape — so that it can hang on the wall.

It doesn’t have to look pretty since its the back.