These construction paper flowers look great in glass vases wrapped with bright, matching colored yarn.
Do-It-Yourself projects are a big trend lately; people are creating their own furniture, home décor, and party decorations. DIY party decorations can add something special to any event, and if you focus on a particular project or two, and combine them with matching ready-made decorations, you can throw a party with a nice personal touch to it, but still save some time!
While many of our themes have centerpieces to match, in some cases you may just feel a little crafty and want to add a homemade touch to your bridal shower decorations. When Katie, one of our employees, made these fun flowers for her sister’s bridal shower, we asked her to share how she made them.
My sister, Shannon, is a very crafty person, and so it only made sense to incorporate some of that into her bridal shower. When we were hunting for scrap booking supplies one day, we came across these paper roses, and I thought those would be the perfect way to do bring her crafting skills into her shower! So my mom, sister, aunt, and I got a bunch of construction paper in various bright colors and sat down for a few hours putting a bunch of these together to be used as centerpieces. Here are the instructions we followed, with some of my own tips included:
1) Pick out your paper in whatever colors the event is. In our case, we wanted to use a bunch of different colors; anything was fine as long as it was bright! We chose to use card stock, but this can also be done using coffee filters for more delicate flowers, or really any paper you like. If you are using card stock though, make sure you consider whether the card stock is colored on both sides, and you should also know that white-core card stock will be very visible on the “petal” edges – especially with darker colored flowers – so you may want to avoid it. You should also pick up paper that can be used for the flowers’ leaves. We used green card stock (and also green florists wire) but if you aren’t striving for realism, you can get very creative with colors and patterns for the leaves.
2) Cut the paper into circles. The size you want the flowers to be will dictate how big to cut the circles. We made most of our circles around 5″ or 6″ in diameter. You may want to trace the circles first. We didn’t do that, but we also wanted our flowers to have a lot of “character” and not be perfectly shaped little roses. We were going for a fun look, so we just free-handed everything! Also, at this point you should cut leaves out of the paper you bought. Size should be proportional to the flower size.
3) Cut the circle into a spiral shape, stopping when the center is a small circle about the size of a nickel or so. Again, you may want to trace the spiral first, but we didn’t. What I did notice, though, is that if you fluctuate the width of the spiral too much, the finished rose can look a bit strange. So it doesn’t need to be perfect, but some effort should be made to be a little consistent with the spiral width.
4) From the outside end (which is now a sharp point), start rolling up the spiral. You want to roll it up really tightly and keep it gripped pretty tightly too, as it will unravel some before being glued. This part was the hardest for me, but once the roll was well started, finishing it off was much simpler.
5) When it’s rolled all the way up to the small, nickel-sized circle that was once the center, stop rolling, and slightly loosen your grip on the rose so that it will begin to unravel a bit. It will unravel enough so that the top part will spread out and it will start to resemble a rose. Be sure to keep a gentle grip on it, as letting it loose too much can cause it to unravel too much, and you’ll have to start rolling it up all over again! If it’s done properly, once it has unraveled to the point where it resembles a flower, the bottom part of the spiral can be glued to the nickel-sized circle with the hot glue gun.
6) Take a piece of the florists wire, cut to the length that you want the stems to be, and bend a small piece of one end 90 degrees. Glue the bent portion to the flower. Hold on to the stem until the glue dries.
One of the bouquets used as a table centerpiece at the restaurant.
7) Glue a leaf onto the bottom of the flower, covering up the small bent portion of the stem. We experimented a bit with how to make the leaves look a little more realistic, and here are a few of the things we tried:
- Accordion fold: folding the base of the leaf into 3 sections and gluing them together to give it more shape. The original source we used as a guide did this expertly, but I just could make this technique look very good for some reason.
- Simple bend and fold: as a substitute for the above tip, I simply bend the base around my thumb until it stayed a little bit curved, and then lightly folded the center. It didn’t look as good as the accordion, but it was better than just flat leaves! They tended to flatten out when glued, so I tried to hold onto the lightly folded part for a moment after gluing it on, to give the glue a chance to dry.
- Curling the tip: one of my favorite things we tried was curling down the tip of the leaves. They tended to uncurl as time wore on though, so looking back, I would curl them past the point where I really thought they looked right.
8) For the yarn-wrapped vases: Simply pick up a bunch of clear vases in various shapes and sizes, and some yarn in colors that match the flowers you’ve just created. Secure one end of the yarn to the glass vase toward the bottom with a line of glue (many different kinds will work, so just use what’s handy). Wrap the yarn around the vase, making sure to keep each new layer tightly next to the previous one. Secure with a new line of glue once you’ve reached the top.
Overall, this project turned into a really fun evening spent crafting with my family, and brought a fun, DIY element to the bridal shower. Everyone at the shower loved them, and by sheer luck, they matched the walls, tablecovers, napkins, and décor of the restaurant where I held the shower. So overall, these were a big success!
If you’re throwing a shower using these DIY flowery centerpieces, some of our garden bridal shower favors would be great as little thank-yous to your guests.
What’s your best party planning craft tip? Let us know in the comments, and we may feature some of your photos and crafting tips in a future blog post!