Paper Flowers - California Poppy

 A few years ago I got really into making paper flowers after following this person on Instagram who had some incredible peonies, dahlias, and other amazing feats of crepe paper… I even subscribed to her website and downloaded her instructions to try and make some of my own. It was a minor obsession! But then one day she just suddenly disappeared – her blog, website, everything, was gone – I was devastated!! After a period of mourning I decided to branch out and try making some of my own paper flowers, and the CA poppy was born.

As paper flowers go, this one is probably the easiest one you’ll ever find so it’s a great place to start! Paper flowers are such a great addition to your home decor, since like fake plants they don’t require any maintenance or watering, and they give such a fun pop of color. The only thing I’ll say, having a few paper flower bouquets for the last few years, they do get a little dusty, and faded if they are near a window, but overall they are still gorgeous! Let’s get started.

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Stuff you’ll need

• Orange and pink crepe paper – kinda like the stuff you might’ve used as a kid for birthday party streamers, but a bit thicker. I’ve linked the website I used where they have a ton of different color varieties and weights, but any brand would work.
• Green stem wire
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun

Instructions

• Start by cutting out your paper shapes – you’ll need one orange piece which will be the middle of the flower, four orange petals, and a small pink circle to form the bottom of the flower. Follow the photo below for cutting shapes and approximate sizes, and don’t worry if they aren’t exactly right. It’s a flower, so they’re all a little different! The important thing is that the crepe paper folds are in the same orientation for each shape shown below.

• Start with the center piece, running a line of hot glue along the bottom edge and twisting it around the top of your stem wire to secure.

• Use your thumbs, starting in the middle and working outward to stretch your petals. This is where the crepe paper comes into play and gives you that nice real petal effect. After you make a few you’ll get a feel for how much you want to stretch the different petals out. If you want to trim the petals after stretching to give them a slightly different shape or small imperfections, now is the time!
• Once your petals are the shape you want them, use a dot of hot glue at the base of each petal to attach them to the center. Start with two petals faced directly across from one another, then add the other two in the remaining gaps.

• Use the bottom of your stem wire to poke a hole in the middle of the pink circle, then slide it up the stem. Add some hot glue to the bottom of your flower, slide the circle up and hold it to the bottom until the glue is mostly dried.
• Once all petals and the bottom are dried after a minute or two (why is hot glue so amazing) fluff out the petals as much as you’d like. If you’re making a whole bouquet, you might want to have some flowers fluffed out more while others are a bit more closed. The look is totally up to you, obviously!

These paper poppies are so cute and dainty, they look great on their own or in a bouquet with a variety of other paper flowers! I added them to a medley along with some dried varieties of eucalyptus leaves, as a housewarming gift for a friend 

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