25 Days of Hand Made Ornaments - #13 - Crepe Paper Poinsettia

Today I've got a flower for you!

For some reason I got into making paper flowers over the summer. I posted a double peony I made from crepe paper. Well, I have created another paper flower this time it's a crepe paper poinsettia!

25 Days of Hand Made Ornaments

#13 - Crepe Paper Poinsettia

Just a note before we begin ~ I wanted to talk about crepe paper. There are several different types of crepe paper on the market some very thin while others are thicker and more durable.

Crepe paper is very inexpensive to craft with. You can buy a 20" x 7.5' sheet for about a dollar most places. It comes in a variety of colors and sometimes patterns as well.

I have found that the crepe paper from D. Blumchen & Co is about the best out there. They not only sell single but double sided crepe paper. I love the double sided because it's got more of a body and holds it's shape better. I also like it because your creations look more natural with two colors.

Supplies:

Petal Pattern (see below)

Crepe Paper (Red & Green)

Pearl Stamen (Red Lead)

Adirondack Alcohol Ink - Sunshine Yellow

Tacky Glue

Wire

(optional) floral tape

Instructions:

1. Print the pattern on cardstock & cut out.

2. Cut 5 small petals, 7 medium petals, 7 large petals and 5-7 leaves from the crepe paper.

3. By nature, crepe paper has a bit of stretch to it. to give the petals a more natural form, stretch the inside of each petal/leaf down the center as shown.

The petals will have a nice arch after you have done so....

4. Color the stamen by dipping in yellow alcohol inks.

5. Create the stamen and flower base by wrapping the wire around 4-5 of the stamen stems as shown in the following photos:

6. Add a small dab of glue to the bottom of the smallest petals and wrap around the stamen/wire stem as shown:

7. Continue by adding the 7 medium flower petals and 7 large flower petals by simply wrapping around the stem.

Hint: I found it much easier and quicker to work if I applied glue to several petals at once. This allowed me to add petals without interruption and I was less likely to mess up the existing petals from too much picking it up and putting it down to add more glue.

8. (Optional) This is totally up to you but I am pretty messy glue wise when I am making flowers. I found that if I wrap the flower petals/stem with a bit of the floral tape after all of the petals had been added I didn't have to worry about transferring the excess glue to my leaf step. (you could also do so in between adding small, medium & large flower petals).

9. Attach the leaves to the flower stem ~ I found that if you flip the flower over (face pointing down) I was able to better position the leaves. After all leaves were added, I added another layer of the floral tape.

10. Fluff...sounds silly but I find you can push and mold the flower to a nice pleasing shape after you're finished adding the various parts and pieces.

And you're done!!

These look great tucked into a Christmas Tree or evergreen garland, added to a gift, several grouped together for a nice center piece or just strategically placed around your home for a splash of holiday cheer!

Pretty cool huh?

And you don't even have to worry about remembering to water it ;) LOL!!!

If this poinsettia is too time consuming for you ~ no worries...tomorrow I've got a REALLY quick and EASY alternative for you :)