Spring is moving towards early Summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the beautiful flowers disappear from the cherry, apple, pear, plum and others from this family of trees. Looks like it was yesterday, when, enjoying my short quarantine bounce to the nearest shop, I was walking under branches, covered with blossom…
From a very long time I have been planning to make an easy tutorial for everyone who loves flowering Spring trees. And yesterday I did just that…
What do you need
Because it is not a very easy time for Crafters, I will show you some easy ideas. For example – in this tutorial you can make the flowers with just white watercolour paper and white office printer paper. If you have some crepe paper, use it, but you can achieve almost the same result with the office paper. From this paper you have to cut simple small flowers. You can use your Sizzix Big shot machine or similar, or just use decorative scissors and make simple flower shapes. If you don’t have watercolour paper, use any other or just stick to the office paper only. Don’t forget that if you make the blossoms from office paper, you will need more layers not just one, but 2 or 3.
Also – the tools… Scissors, kitchen sponge, needle, watercolour brushes (the non coloured round bottom of one of them is important) and… My favourite! A simple nasal inhaler!
If you found my article about Capsule craft collection, I give lots of examples there of how you can repurpose things you have at home as craft materials. You don’t need to buy everything! It is not necessary! It only clutters your craft space! If you want to learn more, check the book on Amazon:
For example, my favourite palette to mix acrylic paint is a simple white porcelain plate. And my favourite scrapbooking work mat is a transparent office pocket for documents with a sheet of white paper inside. I also use it to mix acrylic paint. I made my whole Flowering cactus printable masterclass using this simple method.
You will also need some wire and pliers to cut the wire. Any wire can work!
Let’s make the petals
As I said, try to experiment and to repurpose materials and instruments. This actually is the core of crafting and the source of much of the pleasure!
If you want to colour your Spring flowers, you can use (as I love to do) simple markers. I used watercolour ones, but all the others, which are not alcohol based, will do a great job. If the colour becomes too strong, blot the flower with a paper serviette.
Then, using the nasal inhaler, press the flower on the kitchen sponge. Massage it with round movements and you will produce a wonderful shape.
This is the way I am shaping all my watercolour paper flowers. I don’t have special instruments and don’t need them. Instead I have an inhaler, brush tops and crochet hooks. So, to make some flowers more closed or to curl the petals, use the thinner instrument – the brush end. See the difference? The one of the left is with the inhaler, the one on the right with the brush end
Then, using the needle, make a hole in the middle of every flower.
How to make the stamens
To make the stamens of this Spring blossom project, you need crepe paper or simple white office printer paper. You can either colour it or just leave it white.
Actually, when I finished my project, I realised that maybe it would be better to keep the stamens white, only with tiny brown-orange tops… You can do these tops by simply colouring the edge of the paper string as shown:
Then be patient and cut the string with the thinnest fringes you can.
And twist the fringes by rolling them between your fingers.
Putting the flowers together
The next step is to twist the stamens around the flower stem. For this step I suggest using simple PVA glue, because it doesn’t dry very fast.
If after twisting you decide the stamens are too long…
… move them backwards to the other side of the wire…
Then cut off the unnecessary parts. This will be impossible if you use universal or other faster drying glue. Just be careful to not cut too deep. Move them back to the other side of the wire.
Then thread the wire with the stamens through the hole of the flower. Don’t forget to put a little drop of glue between them to fix the whole construction.
Do you want flower buds?
If you want to add some flower buds, it will be very easy. You need some beads and thin wire. Twist the top of the wire as shown. If you don’t have these special pliers, you can use a simple thin crochet hook or a toothpick to twist the top of the wire around.
Then put some glue on the bead. It will be better to use fast drying, universal glue this time, otherwise the next step will create “ungluing” problems. Thread some of the office paper flowers and sculpt them around the bead.
When all the glue is dry, colour them with markers or watercolours, or use my watercolour marker technique.
Colour a few paper leaves in the same way too…
Final steps
After all the glue and colours are dry, you can start putting the whole branch together. Every leaf and bud and flower has to be connected to the stem with twisted and glued paper.
And that’s it!
I will not lie to you. It will take about a whole afternoon to make a blossom like this, but you will have it for the whole year! Long after the cherry trees start giving beautiful fruit!
Enjoy your craft time and stay safe!
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Thank you for helping me! ♥
If you like paper flowers, why not to see this article about How to make Iceland poppies… More detailed instructions – in my Etsy shop:
