monkey how-to's: scrapbook paper wall flowers

Awhile back, I saw these GORGEOUS paper flowers, done by Amy at H is for Handmade. She made these strips of paper flowers, hung in a store window display. Holy cow...go check them out - they were BEAUTIFUL!! She actually took inspiration for that project from another project she had done - a felt Chrysanthemum pillow. Again, quite a beauty!!

I've gone to her blog several times to gawk at those projects and figure out how, exactly, I could do something along those lines for my daughter's room.

It finally hit me...instead of doing the version Amy did, that hung on a ribbon, I'd figure out how to make one that could just hang flush against the wall.

So, while I had extra crafty hands here this weekend (my aunt from Texas and my mom), I insisted we give it a go!

I gathered my materials:

Scrapbook paper (several different sheets)

Cardboard

Scissors

Scrapbook Adhesive

Pen

Hot Glue Gun

Stapler

Tissue paper

I took a bowl from my kitchen and traced it on the cardboard. I then cut out the circle. I think it's about 10 inches or so in diameter. The cool thing about this project is that you could really make these ANY SIZE! Whatever you want/need!!

Then, I drew a flower petal on the back of one of the pieces of paper. We used 12x12 paper, and I made the petal 12 inches long (not sure if you can see that in this photo above on the back of that paper). These 12 inch petals are the largest. We used one petal to trace the rest and cut out 8 of them.

Here are all 8 of our big petals. Lookin' good so far, right?!?!

For our next row of petals, I knew they needed to be smaller. Check out Amy's tutorial for her pillow - she describes it even better. At any rate, I made the next row of petals slightly smaller than the big ones. We cut out 8 of those too.

Here it is with the second row of petals spread out. We staggered them so they'd fill the empty spaces.

Finally, we cut out 8 more petals, slightly smaller than the last ones.

So, once we were done cutting, we had our circle for the center of the flower, 8 large petals, 8 medium petals, and 8 small petals.

My daughter even helped me to trace and cut out a solid piece of cardstock that we stuck on the cardboard center. I used scrapbook dot adhesive to stick that paper on.

To add dimension to the flower, we decided to staple the ends of the petals together. I hope this part is clear! Basically, we took the smallest end of the petal (the end that will attach to the center) pinched the two sides together, and stapled them. You can see above the ones that are stapled curl up a bit.

Here's my mom showing how she pinched the petal ends.

Okay, first row done! All stapled - now time to hot glue them down!

Basically, I tried to flatten out the end enough so I could get a big glob of glue on there, then I stuck the petal down. I placed them at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 positions on the clock, then filled in from there.

The first row is glued down!

Lookin' good so far!!

WE INTERRUPT THIS CRAFT TUTORIAL TO BRING YOU OTHER GREAT IDEAS!!

Before we glued down the second row, we had the second row of petals laid out, and my mom looked at it on the table, and was like,

"This would make a beautiful centerpiece! Let's stick a candle in the middle!"

So we did! And she was right - very pretty! This would be a fun centerpiece for a spring/summer bridal or baby shower, or even a girly birthday party.

We decided to try out a vase of flowers too. Hey, when you've got an idea, you've gotta run with it, right? We thought maybe some tulle down around the base of the vase or candle (we're thinkin' flameless might be best here, considering all the paper!) to cover all of the ends of the petals.

Alright, so back to the project. For row two, we decided we needed a little something to help us hold down the petals right after we stuck them on. Since the first row was down, there was a good bit of dimension happening, making it a little tough to hold them in place with just our fingers. Plus, let's face it, the glue was HOT and we didn't feel like burning our fingers all night (my aunt's done that before, and we felt like we really needed to preserve what was left of her fingertips).

Here it is with 2 rows of petals down!

We did the same thing with the third row.

We then needed to make something for the center. We decided to cut out 4 (2 big, 2 little) X shaped flowers out of tissue paper.

My mom whipped up a tissue paper flower. I think she just accordion-folded a piece of paper, tied some curly ribbon around the center, then opened up the flower. Easy peasy! GO MOM!

I set all 4 'X' flowers on top of one another - the 2 big ones first, then the two smaller ones. I staggered them so the petals hit in different spaces. I put 2 staples in them so they'd stay together. Then I glued those down on the center of the flower. Next, I glued the flower on top.

Okay, that's IT!!! It sounds like alot, but seriously, I'd guess it maybe took us an hour and a half, including cutting out the petals, stapling, gluing, and picture taking! NOT BAD, right?!?!

The next day, while I was out enjoying a walk (ON MY OWN - GASP!!!), my mom and aunt gathered the scraps and helped Lydia make a smaller one!!! They didn't do the stapling on hers, just cut out the petals, stuck them on with scrapbook adhesive, made a fringy little center, and stuck on a button. Lydia was SO PROUD!!! (so was mommy!! **sniff sniff**)

Now...to see them on the WALL in her room!!

I am completely ecstatic with how they BOTH turned out!! I put them on the wall above her 'book nook' (using the 3M velcro strips!!) and purposely put them up a bit higher so she wouldn't want to pull at them all the time. Although, I'm kinda thinkin' we MIGHT need one more small one! ;)

That's it! I think it's a project that definitely ends up looking like it took longer than it did. The finished product has a 'wow' factor, I think...with the different papers and the dimensional quality of the flower.

If you have a little girl who likes flowers, enjoys crafting, and loves color, think about giving this project a try! I don't think you'll be disappointed!!!

**Linking up to:**

The Girl Creative: Just Something I Whipped Up

DIY Showoff

Today's Creative Blog

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