Crepe paper Iceland poppy – are you ready to try?

Iceland poppies are one of the most beautiful and fragile creatures in Earth.

Imagine how surprised I was when one beautiful white flower appeared in one of my flower pots in the 7-th floor of the apartment building. Maybe a crow brought it, they often do this, hiding seeds for later, but where she found the seed in the busy city? Whatever – after the wonderful surprise, the disappointment came. The next year the Iceland poppies didn’t appear…

Do you like Iceland poppies, but have no where and how to grow them? Do not like cut flowers? Your pot flowers are always dying, because you are busy or travelling a lot?

With this step by step tutorial you will make your own Iceland poppy and will forget about watering, changing the water, sunlight, heat, cold and all the other obstacles…

What you need to make an Iceland poppy?

For this crepe paper Iceland poppy, you will need two types of crepe paper – a thick one and thin one. In the picture bellow you can see the difference between the thick and the thinner one. The thin one is also softer.

Starting with the stamens of the Iceland poppy

Make a “ribbon” from a thick crepe paper and twist it between your fingers to become a string, as shown. If you are doing this project with children, be careful, the sharpness of the paper can hurt their fingertips. It is better for you to do it for them, so, please, use band-aids for their fingers.

Cut a piece from the thin crepe paper, longer than the “string” you just made and about 5 cm wide, cover it with glue and place the sting on the paper.

Fold the wide piece of paper as shown and press gently to be sure all the areas are glued.

Mix white, sienna or light brown and yellow acrylic paint. Do not mix them so thoroughly that they become a plain colour! You will need different nuances.

Colour the folded piece of paper. When the first side is ready, wait until it dries before you start colouring the second side. To speed up drying I use my microwave oven, leaving the piece on cooking paper for about 1-2 minutes at a power setting of 600 W.

While the pieces are drying, make a ball from soft paper (kitchen paper or the thinner crepe paper) and Twist one of end of the paper wire around the ball as shown.

Then cut a square piece from the thin crepe paper (say, 7 cm (3”) square) and sprinkle a lot of glue on it. Cover the paper ball to mould the bud Fold and sculpture this piece around the ball. This is how the core of the stamen bud must look after sculpturing.

Leave the bud to dry somewhere.

DO NOT dry it in the microwave oven. It will cause a fire! Do not microwave paper wire!

While the bud is drying, cut a piece 10 cm wide from the thicker crepe paper. Be careful about the direction of the “wrinkles” – they must be on the long side, vertical, as shown. Colour one side of the paper piece.

When the paper piece is dry, twist it strongly! This will make new wrinkles and also will soften the paper after the colouring.

When the green piece of paper is has been twisted, open it and twist it only in the middle – twice. This will create the top of the bud.

Cover the white bud (even if it is not 100% dry) with the green paper and press gently everywhere with your fingers to spread the glue. The twisted centre knot must be on the top of the bud. Cut off the excess white part and fix the edges with more glue.

When the yellow paper part is dry, cut off the white part of the piece since you don’t need this any more and start cutting little fringes, from  the string side. Leave 1 – 2 cm of the plain side uncut. The thinner fringes will make more realistic stamens.

When all the fringes are cut, gently twist each between your fingertips. Do not twist the tops with the string.

Glue the yellow stamens around the bottom of the green bud.

How to make the Iceland poppy petals

In this project the Iceland poppy has 4 petals.

Cut a rectangular piece about 5 cm long and 7 cm wide (about 2” x 3”) from which you will cut out your petal shapes.

Be careful with the direction of the “wrinkles”. When cutting the petals, the “wrinkles” must be vertical

Coloured or not, your petals must be twisted. If coloured, twist them after they are almost dry. Otherwise some parts of the paper can stick to each other and when you open the petal later, it is possible to destroy it. All the petals – after the twisting – will have different shapes. Do not try to make them equal. The beauty of the future flower relies exactly on these differences.

After the petals are ready, you have to glue them around the stamens. Be careful to cover the whole of the bottom of the stamens with the longer part of the petal. This will make them a lot more stable.

Glue the petals like you a making a cross. First, two opposite each other and second, the other two at 90 degrees from the first and opposite each other – exactly like drawing a cross.

Making the stem with crepe paper

Before making the stem, you need to be sure that the petals are properly fixed. For that first cut s few paper strings from the thick crepe paper, not more than 1 cm wide. For one flower you will probably need two or three strings. Put glue on the string, twist it carefully while gently stretching the paper. Stretching is important to tighten the string. Make 3 or more rounds in the same area. Cover to the bottom of the wire.

Using the same green and yellow paint and brush, colour the both sides of the strings. To cover all the stem, you will need maybe two or three paper strings 10 cm long each. I am telling you 10 cm, because it is easier to work with shorter strings.

When the paper string is dry, cut little fringes in one of the edges. The thinner the fringes, the better the end result will be.

Roll the string between your fingers and press harder when you are doing it. If you are making more than 1 flower and this is your first paper flower project, probably the skin on your finger tips is still not strong enough.

Glue the “grassy” string first around the bottom of the petals and after that – around the stem. It is not necessary to make more than one turn at the bottom of the petals, just cover the white part and keep moving to the bottom of the stem.

Don’t worry when the string finishes in the middle of the stem. Just carefully glue the end and start with the second one on the top of the end of the first one.

At the end of the stem just fix the string with more glue and cut off any excess if there is any.

And… Congratulations!

Your Iceland poppy flower is ready! And it is beautiful, I know!

More detailed tutorial with 20 pages of instructions you can find HERE in my Etsy shop.

If you are curious, which is my favourite paper flower, see this ARTICLE ♥

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