Our next flower tutorial in our Paper Flower Series is actually my favorite from the wedding. They are just so delicate and actually look the most realistic of all the flowers we made.
There are several steps to making these flowers. I did a lot of research to get them to look the most realistic as possible and tried numerous other methods before coming up with this one. You could probably find simpler ways to do this on the internet but the extra steps in this method make a HUGE difference in the end result.
Supplies Needed:
-coffee filters (the ones that look like giant cupcake liners);
5 filters per flower
-acrylic paint in your desired color
-a bowl or bucket of water for dyeing
-glue gun and glue sticks
-floral wire
-floral tap
Dyeing Coffee Filters:
Step one to making these flowers is dyeing the coffee filters to your desired color.
To do this:
-water down some acrylic paint in a bucket or bowl of water.
-take a stack of coffee filters and turn them inside out so that they no longer stick together
-in stacks of about 5 filters each completely submerge the filters in the paint and water
-wring out the dyed filters and lay them out to finish drying, turning filters after a while to speed up the drying process
*dye as many as possible if you are making a lot of flowers so you can let them all dry at once
Prepare Dyed & Dried Filters:
Before I get into the details of cutting the petals and assembling the flowers you will need to fold the coffee filters.
a) Get 5 dyed and dried coffee filters to make a flower.
b) Fold 1 coffee filter in half 3 times and set aside.
c) Take 2 coffee filters and while stacked on one another, fold in half 3 times then set aside.
d) Take the 2 remaining coffee filters and while stacked on one another, fold in half once and then in thirds. Now set aside.
Assembling the bud of the Flower:
1-Cut coffee filter from step b above and cut according to picture.
2-Take piece shown below and pinch points of arrows together.
3-Take a piece of floral wire that's about 7" long and bend about an inch of wire down onto itself to keep pinched points together.
4) Open up petals.
5) Pull petals up away from the wire and for a bud.
6) Here's another angle of what this should look like.
Adding Small Petals:
7-Take piece shown in picture and cut along the folds or dotted lines.
8-You should end up with 4 heart looking pieces.
9-Lay hearts on one another as shown in picture and make 2 small folds to secure.
Add hot glue where dotted line is shown in the picture.
10-Glue heart petals to bud.
Adding Medium Sized Petals:
1-Take filters from step c in "Prepare Dyed & Dried Filters" above and cut out a petal.
The general shape you want is pictured but the top of the petals shape can very.
Look at some real flowers for inspiration.
I made some that were more pointed, some wavy, have fun with it.
You should end up with 16 separate medium sized petals after this step.
2-Take two petals and twist them together at their tips.
Do this with all 16 medium petals and end up with 8 pairs.
3-Using scissors, curl petal tips the same way you would curl ribbon.
This will give the petals a more realistic look.
Then add a dot of hot glue where arrow is pointing.
4-Glue petal pairs together as pictured.
5-You will have 4 bunches of 4 petals.
6-Use hot glue to add these petals around your growing bud.
Adding Large Petals & Completing Flower:
1-Take remaining filters from step c in "Prepare Dyed & Dried Filters" above and cut out a petal the same way you did for your medium sized petals. You should end up with 12 large petals.
2-Twist the tips of 4 single petals. Twist the remaining 8 petals in pairs as shown in the picture.
3-Curl all the petals.
4-Add glue to single petal as pictured in step 2 and glue a petal pair on top of it.
You will end up with 4 petal trios.
5-Add these petal trios to your blooming bud.
6-Here's another angle of what it should look like.
7-Clean up and secure those little "tails" with some floral tape.
8-Now using a chopstick, pencil, or skewer open up your flower. Done!
Dye filters in various shades of the same color for a really pretty bouquet. You could also put a stamen instead of a bud in the flowers center. See my tutorial on Tissue Paper Bubble Flowers for instructions on preparing the stamen.
I really love these flowers. They are just so pretty. You could make them year round in all kinds of colors, throw them in a vase and just admire their gorgeousness. Plus, since they are made our of thin coffee filters, light shines beautifully through them. I am really considering making and using coffee filter flowers for a back-lit backdrop.
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