New Years, a New Baby and a New Craft!

My new years was a little different to most.
See yesterday (New Years Eve) my sister gave birth to her first baby! My first niece!

So rather than take her a bunch of flowers (that wont last long) I wanted to make her a giant flower that will last forever!

As with many of my craft projects, I decided at the last minute to make this for her. I do work well under pressure – but I ended up running out of time! I finished it today though – so I’ll give it to her during the week!

So if you want to make yourself a giant flower I suggest you give yourself more than 1/2hr to make it!

The materials I used were as follows –

-A sheet of A4 white paper (for the stencil)
– a roll of pink crepe paper
– a strip of brown paper (for the stem)
– stapler or hot glue (After burning myself many times whilst rushing last night – I switched to the stapler today.)

Here’s how I made it:

I started by making a heart shaped stencil. I then cut a bunch of heart shapes from the crepe paper. I think I ended up using about 20 in the end.

I took each of these hearts and stretched them out, especially around the edges to make them look more like petals.

**Tip – ensure the grain of the paper runs vertical. This will allow you to stretch the petals and shape them. My first 8 petals I made the mistake of cutting the wrong way, and I ended up not being able to use them! grrrr

I made the stem by twisting a strip of brown paper.

I started the flower by wrapping the first petal around the stem. Secure it with a staple. (Sticky tape didn’t stick, and I burnt myself too many times with the hot glue)

One petal at a time, I wrapped them around to form the flower.

I would have been happier to add maybe a few more layers – but I ran out of paper!
I used a piece of scrap to wrap around the base – just to neaten it up. Again – if I’d had some green, it may have been better to do that to look more like the base of a real flower.

I’m pretty happy with the result! I’m going to check the craft cupboard tomorrow to see if there’s any more crepe paper hiding away to maybe make another! I think I’m a little addicted now! How great would a whole bunch look!

How was your new years? Did you spend it making paper flowers like me??

Thanks for stopping by!

Nic xx