DIY CRAFT

“Make stuff you love and talk about stuff you love and you’ll attract people who love that kind of stuff. It’s that simple.”

Austin Kleon

Previously, I have shared about my creative pursuits, so I had this small event for our daughters and a few of their girl friends. This was to usher them into the world of being young women; dubbed “period party” (I will write about it soon). I chose to do the organizing by myself. Single handedly I did the invites, selected a venue, did the catering and décor, but I outsourced a facilitator.

My dopamine levels were on a high and I swung into my element. I had all these creative ideas and I wanted to see them to fruition. It took me roughly three weeks from a concept to culmination. I would say that the event was successful and the mums and girls were impressed. Among the many things I had to do, I was amazed by the aftermath of this self-taught skill that I want to share today.

With the help of our daughters, I made some décor paper flowers that we used for the backdrop. This was an indoor event. To achieve this, as you can see in the images we used easy steps. It is important to note that this task was demanding and requires patience, we however enjoyed and bonded as we did the DIY flowers.

Paper flowers have become alternative décor items because of their ability to be versatile and reusable. There are so many fun ways to use them. They can be used as photo shoot backdrops, for home décor, nursery décor, baby showers and wedding décor, wreath, floral monogram, event headbands, gift toppers the list is endless. After this event, we reused them to decorate our house.

Things you will need are:

• Cardstock paper – In Gold, White, Green and pink
• A pair of scissors
• Flower Stencils
• Glue gun and sticks
• Pencil and eraser
• Spray paint
• Photo booth frame

The supplies are not hard to find, I bought all the supplies from a bookstore. The templates were sourced from the internet, just search free paper flower templates. We used different types of flower templates to get the flowers and the butterflies. To cut the flower shapes a cricut machine can be used. This makes the work more easier and the cutouts are accurate. I didn’t have one, instead I printed out the stencils and hand cut them.

Steps:

• Print out the specific paper templates you like.
• Trace the outline of all the petals and round base onto the back of the cardstock.
• Hand cut the petals and the middle part of the flower. Cut them out in segments/layers. (the stencil comes with guidelines of the number to duplicate).
• Place the petals in neat stacks for easier assembling.
• Curling the edges of the petals.
• Cut a slit, to give dimension to the petals, then put a little glue to one side of the slip then bring the other and hold on so that they stick together.
• Arrange petals from the round base starting with the outer larger then the smaller ones towards the center using your glue gun, by putting a small amount of glue on the underside of each petal at the bottom and glue it to the round base overlapping as you go so that the petals fit nicely.
• Finally you have your paper flower

I had a bare photo booth frame, made of foam board. I decorated it using spray paint in the shade gold and a glue gun to stick the butterflies and flowers.

Now that the kids are at home, this is one of the ideas you can borrow. It is fun and it will bring out your creative juices into action.

I hope you enjoy as much as we did making these paper flowers. I’d love to know how your flowers turn out. Let me know in the comments.