Lucy - the lifestyle columnist - aninspiring.com

During quarantine, I spent on paper flower craft to come up with how to make paper flowers. As a beginner, I had to make and remake many times to master the method. Successfully, I have made numerous lady-slipper orchid and tiny green orchid slipper guidelines. Although I was frustrated a lot from constant failure, I finally find an easy way to make papercraft flowers. Photography by Kate Alarcón I haven't yet perfected the Icelandic poppy. I've tried to make improvements to this version for more than a year. Unlike the lady-slipper, I enjoyed the process of perfecting this poppy. I think the wrinkling petals and twisting stems made it fun. If you are bored during quarantine, I suggest you try this easy paper cutting flowers. ????? See Current Price ? Best Crepe Paper Masking Tape ????? See Current Price ? Best Polished Wooden Beads ????? See Current Price ? Best Sharp Titanium Soft-Grip Scissors ????? See Current Price ? Best Poppy Fabric ????? See Current Price ? Best Design Master Spray Paint ????? See Current Price ? Best Designer Adhesive Clear Glue ????? See Current Price ? Best Watercolor Paint Assorted Vibrant Colors in Half Pans I hope you’ll also succeed to make your flower bouquet of poppies and decorate it in a vase and play with them. When you feel like giving up, you will see how far you came and will want to make more! The twisting technique mentioned below is adapted from Livia Cetti’s beautiful and essential book, The Exquisite Book of Paper Flowers. Special thanks to the unbelievably talented Lynn Dolan (@lmdolan75 on Instagram) for her generous advice on this event! —Kate ? Check Out Other Blogs About Floral DIY Now! 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Check out the list of crepe paper I gathered to see if you have any of these stores at home already. From Castle in the Air: “Pale Yellow Green” heavy crepe for the frill at the top of the seed pod “Lemon” heavy crepe for the stamen filigree “Sunflower” fine crepe for the anthers at the end of the stamens Fine crepe in “Red,” “Persian Pink,” “Pale Pink,” “Pink,” “Sunflower,” and “Vanilla” for the petals From Paper Mart: “Moss Green” heavy crepe to cover the pod and wrap the stem, from Paper Mart Optional: Design Master Color Tool Spray in “Holiday Red,” “Perfect Pink,” “Coral,” “Orange,” and “Yellow” PanPastel in “Permanent Red Tint 340.8,” “Permanent Red 340.5,” “Orange 280.5,” and “Hansa Yellow 220.5” Create The Grain The grain of the crepe paper needs to go the same direction as the roll or fold. You may cut the petals when you cut the grain, creating the template so that the paper wrinkles can run the template horizontally. Pay attention to each template because it includes the direction to the grain should follow. Construct The Seed Pod At The Center Of The Flower First, start with making the frill at the top of the seedpod. Using template A, cut a frill piece from the pale green heavy crepe. Stretch and flatten all the crinkles in the top half-inch of the frill pieces. Twist the frill piece starting from about ½” below the top edge. The stretched part of the frill will create a tiny funnel. You can place your fingertip inside the funnel to keep it open when you twist the frill. It may be complicated so you can just twist first and then open the funnel using an end of the floral wire. Make the wooden bead go through your bottom part of the twisted frill piece. Add a little bit of glue at the end of your wire. Make you scrape any extra glue to prevent it from dripping. Put this glued wire tip into the bottom of the bead right next to the fringe from earlier. If you cannot insert the bead, you can just set the wire tip inside the bead and deal with the securing later. With template B, cut a rectangle using the medium green heavy crepe. Cut a short fringe across the top of the rectangle (you can either make use of the top of template B to draw lines or without using the template). Swipe a layer of glue on this piece using a sponge. Put the rectangle underneath the bead and place its top edge slightly higher than the top of your bead. Wrap and press the rectangle around the bead. Trim the extra bit of the rectangle. Press down the green crepe from the top fringes of the bead, around the tiny ball shape and down the wire with your fingers. This way, the pod will firmly attach to the wire. Add The Pistil Grab the pale yellow crepe and cut it like template C. Stretch out the cut rectangle that should have a width similar to template D. If the rectangle is wider, cut the extra parts. Using the the dotted line in template D, cut the fringes from the top. Either trace the line with a pencil or fold along it until you see a crease ark of fringe. Cut the fringe as precisely as you can. You don't need to stress too much. Any extra paper beneath your fringes as shown by the diagonal line on template D can be cut. This will create less bump where your stamens will be placed while allowing a smooth transition from the stem to the blossom. With your cosmetic sponge, apply a layer of glue beneath the dotted line. Lay the bead on this fringe piece, making sure the bottom of the bead is place above the dotted line. Then, gently wrap the fringe on the bead. For now ignore the lower part of the bead and keep the upper fringe is all. Press down the base of the fringe from the wire to the bottom of the pod. Gently press down the filigree using your thumb and forefinger and curve them out of the center to create a ring of stamens. You are done with your stamen filigree! Grab the orange fine crepe ( the short sides are aligned with the grain) and use it to cut a 3”x 9” rectangle. Fold it twice vertically in half. Create a thin layer of cut on along the fringe. Then turn the rectangle 90 degrees, facing down and trim across your fringe to get your “confetti.” Carefully gather all the confetti in a pile. Gush glue onto a plate, and apply it on the tips of the yellow fringe as shown on the photo below.To avoid the glue from getting on the seedpod frill, you can slowly apply it while holding the stem at a 45-degree angle by twisting the stem around. Dip the tip of your fringe into the confetti. Look how your fringes have beautiful anthers now. All the content in this blog is the property of aninspiring. Kindly refrain from plagiarising the content of this blog. Apply Colors To The Petals There are two options: Apply color first or cut petals first. I like to put some color on the papers before jumping into the Color Tool spray. I highly recommend you to use the spray outdoor with your mask on because of its intense smell. The smell will go away a few days after. Shake the can before spraying on a thin coat. If you’d prefer a more deep color, you can add another light coat once the first layer is dried. I enjoy spraying layers across the grain. Make sure to keep your petal at a distance before spraying. When I use PanPastels, I cut my petals before I add the colors. You can use your cosmetic sponge to do so by swiping the pastel. I like to add it at the edges of the petal to make the color more intense and to make it fade towards the bottom. You could also reverse it and make the top darker. Clockwise from top: 1. “Vanilla” crepe with “Holiday Red” spray, 2. “Red” crepe with “Orange” PanPastel, 3. “Sunflower” crepe with “Holiday Red” spray, 4. “Vanilla” crepe with “Orange” spray, 5. “Light Pink” crepe with “Yellow” spray, 6. “Vanilla” fine crepe with “Perfect Pink” spray, 7. “Persian Pink” crepe with “Coral” spray, and “Persian Pink” crepe with “Holiday Red” spray. Gather The Petals Each poppy will hold six petals: two for each template E, template F, and template G. Templates E through F is half a petal, so you need to fold the templates parallel to the grain and set the dotted line along the fold. Lay the petal on a smooth surface. Put your fingertips about an inch in from the edge of the petal near you. Gently put your thumbs on the edge, placing them behind your fingers. Drag the paper toward your fingers using your thumbs. When your fingers and thumbs meet, lift your fingertips, and place them about an inch forward. Repeat until you’ve made the whole petal into pleats. Grab one of your petals and pinch up and down it to make the pleats. Keeping the pleats, twirl the petal as if you are gently removing water out of a rag. Twist it several times than making one big twist. Untwist and carefully spread the petal. Pay attention not to strengthen the pleats and wrinkles as much as you can. Then, you can now curl your petal or after you glue your pleats. Curling the petals is similar to curling ribbon: you can drag the petal across with the blade of your scissors, a skewer, or your fingers from the base of the petal to the upper edge. Stretch the bottom half-inch of the template and add glue to your sponge to dip it across the bottom of the petal. Nip the bottom edge to gather it like the pic below. Wait for a few minutes until the glue is dry. Remove the excessive bulk at the base of the petal. Attach The Petals Grab the paired petals template E’s, and attach them on opposite sides of the pod, facing each other. First, apply a little bit of glue to the bottom of the petal and press it under the bead as shown below. For the second set of petals, work clockwise to attach the F’s. Glue F next to E, overlapsping by 30%. Finally, attach each template G petal next to your template F petals, once again, overlapping by around 30%. Attach To The Stem Wire Cut some ¼” x 8” strips from the grain of the medium green heavy crepe. Put glue on the first 2 or 3 inches of the strip and tightly wrap around the stem part beneath the flower to attach the petals and hide the petal bottoms. On one side of the stem wire, add a bit of glue. (I usually glue four or five inches of the stem before adding more inches later to avoid getting glue on my hands.) At a 45-degree angle, hold the strip to the stem and gently straighten the strip as you twist the stem around the strip until the way bottom of the stem. If your strip breaks or runs out, just continue with a new strip on the stem where the previous one broke. Once your stem has dried, straighten the stamens and organize your petals. If you want to curl a little bit more, you may lightly pull a petal’s edge to stretch the wrinkles or press some petals down to where the layers divide. About Kate: Kate Alarcón makes handcraft paper flowers and teaches paper flower tutorials in the Seattle area. You can see her most recent work on Instagram @cobralilyshop. All the content in this blog is the property of aninspiring. Kindly refrain from plagiarising the content of this blog.