Paper Protea DIY Tutorial

Remember this stunning gorgeous photoshoot shot by Ashley Forrette from a couple weeks ago? The crafter behind those amazing paper proteas place cards, Rachel Coddington of the Etsy shop Sunny and Stumpy, is back to share with us a tutorial on how to make them yourself. Thank you for sharing!

From Rachel: Using the PDF template, cut out all of your pieces. The smallest circle petal will be your “leaf,” and the columns will be your “center”. Choose whichever colors you want for those particular petals (I like the inside to be light and the leaf to be green, personally!). If you don’t want to cut them out, you can always buy them pre-cut from my shop.

Start in the center. Glue the edge carefully so that there is still equal space between each petal. (I use PVA, but regular glue can work fine).

Glue a small spot on each petal. Overlap the petals and hold until secure.

With an open pair of scissors, curl each of the remaining petals. Your circle petals will need to be pressed into your hand so that they curl upwards and don’t stick straight up when you glue them to the base.

Take the tallest set of petals and glue them to the center.

Take the medium and smallest set of petals, offset them from the first set, and glue them to the center as well.

This is the trickiest part- apply a small line of glue to the circular part of the flower. This will hold fine once it dries. You can apply it to the base circle petal if you prefer.

A Vibrant Destination Wedding on Kona Beach in Blue & Gold

Once that part is glued, you can put on the finishing touch- the leaf! You may need to shape the petals a bit with your hand so they don’t just lie flat- you want them to curl up to meet the other petals.

You’re done! You can play with the petals at this point to have them stick out or stay close to the center.