DIY Paper Flower Wreath

Brace yourselves for paper flowers galore! Hillary created tissue paper flower wreaths to be used for one of her brides’ wedding as centerpieces. We’re in awe of the color burst of paper craftiness.

Paper Rose Tutorial:
Step 1. Take six or seven layers of tissue paper and cut about 4 different sizes of petal shapes into the paper, giving you about 25 individual “petals”. You can make round petals or pointed petals depending on your taste.
Step 2. Pick up each petal and twist the bottom of it, creating a base
Step 3. Grab your stamen on floral wire, (these can be hard to find, Hilary found hers at a craft and party supply in San Francisco, check your local craft or floral shop) and your floral tape and your first petal. Place the base of the petal next to the base of the stamen and wrap floral tape around it to secure it.
Step 4. Petal by petal, secure them to the wire with floral tape, creating a rose shape.
Step 5. When you have a full flower, wrap the floral tape around the base one more time to secure it.
Step 6. Cut the base of the wire to about 1.5″ and push it into the Styrofoam ring adjacent to the next flower.

Paper Lily Tutorial:
Step 1. Cut a square out of about ten layers of tissue paper and fold it into quarters.
Step 2. Cut a petal shape (with a round or pointed tip) into the folded paper, being sure to leave an uncut piece at the base.
Step 3. Unfold the paper into a four pointed “clover” type shape. Fold again lengthwise from tip to tip to give the shape a little substance.
Step 4. Fold the shape up so all four points are facing upwards and the points are going in different directions.
Step 5. Grab a corsage pin and pierce the tissue paper at the bottom
Step 6. Repeat the folding and piercing process until you have multiple layers on the pin, with multiple points facing upward.
Step 7. Place the pin into the Styrofoam, making sure the end of the pin isn’t visible (Hilary likes to use these flowers to fill space in the middle of the ring.

Paper Dahlia Tutorial
This is the most commonly made tissue paper flower and you can find tutorials all over the web (you may have made them in elementary school as well).
Step 1. Grab four sheets of tissue paper and cut them into a strip about 3″ wide by 8″ long.
Step 2. Take the short end of the paper and begin folding it accordion style until you have an accordion about 1/3″ by 3″.
Step 3. Cut a small piece of floral wire and wrap it around the center of the folded paper, twist the wire at the bottom to secure it.
Step 4. Cut the ends of each side of the paper into a rounded or triangle shape, depending on how you want the edges to look (round or spiky).
Step 5. Beginning with the center sheet, pull each layer of paper up towards the center, fluffing as you go.
Step 6. Move side to side and downwards, separating the layers until you create a purty flower.
Step 7. Push the wire end into the styrofoam ring adjacent to the next closest flower.

Paper Daisy Tutorial
Step 1. Repeat steps 1-3 of the lily tutorial by grabbing 10 or so sheets of tissue paper, folding them into quarters and cutting a petal shape. Unfold them so you have a four leaf clover type shape and fold the centers in from tip to tip.
Step 2. Pierce the center of the flower with a corsage pin. This will be the center of your flower.
Step 3. Fan out each of the layers of tissue paper, making sure each layer isn’t right on top of the last layer, filling out the flower.
Step 4. Insert the corsage pin into the styrofoam adjacent to the last flower.

You may remember those orange carnations from this tissue paper pomander project from back in the day. These centerpieces are fairly easy to create, but also fairly time consuming, so be warned before you, say, decide to create 26 of them for your wedding (like Hilary did). A single wreath would look beautiful as a centerpiece for your dining room table however, or a few of them would be perfect for a shower or dinner party. You could even hang them up on the walls like a traditional wreath.

Wreath Instructions:

Start with a 12″ or comparable white Styrofoam ring. This will be your base. Begin creating flowers and inserting the floral wire stems into the base next to each other, slowly building out the ring.

Hilary decided to build the wreath by creating the flower and then inserting it into the Styrofoam ring based on what color and style of flower she needed at the time, but you could also create a bunch flowers and then insert them into the base all at once. As you build out the wreath, try to make sure that no two styles of flower or colors of paper are next to each other.

Continue building out your wreath flower by flower until you have a full ring. Be sure to go all the way to the base on the outside so no styrofoam shows, Hilary wasn’t as careful on the inside of the ring because she plans on inserting the lantern into the center of the ring to complete the centerpiece.

She plans on putting these centerpieces on top of lake blue taffeta linens in the centers of her dinner tables at her wedding next June. As she finishes the centerpieces she is storing them in wreath boxes, available on Uline.

Enjoy