When the girls are home from school we do a lot of baking, so I always keep packaging supplies on hand to share our baked goods with friends and neighbors. Kraft-colored coffee bags are perfect for stacking cookies and it's always fun to add a decoration. Today I made these paper flowers to attach to our packages, and below you'll find an easy tutorial to make some for yourself. They are wonderful for gift wrapping, and garlands too. You can also use the same tutorial to create the large paper pom poms that are so popular, just increase your paper dimensions.
1) Select your paper and cut it into two large squares. For this flower, I used parchment paper and cut it into 10.5" squares. Tissue paper, or dry wax paper works well too. Cut your squares in half again leaving you with two rectangles. Cut them in half one more time, leaving you with 5.25" squares. Stack your pieces of paper together when cutting to save time.
2) Arrange your 5.25" squares into a stack and make 1/2" accordion folds. I use my bone folder to create nicely creased edges.
3) Wrap a piece of floral wire around the center of your folded accordion paper and secure by twisting it. To make a decorative edge on the petals, cut points or scallops from both ends of the folded paper.
4) Carefully open out the folded accordion so that it resembles a small bowtie.
5) Working with one half at a time, gently begin pulling a single sheet at a time towards the center, separting it from the remaining layers. Continue this process until all sheets on one side have been pulled to the center. Repeat the entire process with the remaining half of the accordion fold.
6) Once all of the sheets have been pulled to the center, your flower will be formed. You can then add any additional scrunching or fluffing for the perfect look.
I added two velvet leaves to my bags, but the leaves could easily be cut from paper. It's also nice to make different sized roses and attach them as a grouping. If you make some flowers, please share links to your pictures. I'd love to see them!
