Why a black Peony for home decoration? Because there are some flowers, which are always very elegant and give a specific chic to your home and a black Peony is a bit “unexpected”. It can be very “eye catching” – one of those details, which makes your home something special.
And further very good news is that a black Peony decoration is not expensive. You can make this stylish element yourself and this will not detract even a copper coin from its exclusive elegancy. Try it!
The materials you need
To make this black peony home decoration you will need (1) good quality, black and green crepe paper. I am always saying that the quality of the materials, especially paper in our case, is crucial for a project’s success. I use Italian crepe paper, but you can find your local manufacturer or shop and support his (or her) business. Second you need a PVA glue (2). For me, this is the best glue to work on paper with. Also, wire (3). In this project, I am using florist’s wire, but in craft shops you can find other good quality paper covered wire, which will also work well for you.
Also – sharp scissors (4). You can also use scissors with toothed blades to help yourself with some small details. Pliers with cutters (5 and 6) to not break your scissors when cutting the wire, a wooden barbeque pick to twist some of the petal’s edges and binder clips. The wooden pick and the binder clips are not totally essential for your project, but they are definitely time saving especially with all the small details in this project. You know, a few seconds here, a few seconds there and a whole hour is lost.
How to make the stem of the black Peony
I always prefer to buy thin florist’s wire. This helps me control how thick the stems are and also, the thin wire is almost invisible inside the petals and leaves when I need it. If I need a thick stem as in this case, I will just add more pieces of wire, 5 in our case, and will cover them with paper strips/strings.
A small trick: when you need to cut a long paper strip for a string, keep the paper rolled and closed and cut from the edge. This will save you time and also make the string uniform without any small cuts, which could make it weaker.
Glue the 5 wire pieces together by wrapping them with the string and gluing them with the PVA glue.
Let’s make the petals
Everyone knows – the reason peonies are so attractive, is this gorgeous messiness of their petal crowns. How to make it without gluing one by one, dozens and dozens of paper pieces?
Cut a rectangular paper piece as shown. In my project, it is about 10’’ x 2’’ (25 cm x 5 cm), but if you want to make a smaller or bigger flower, you will need to change these dimensions, of course.
Fold the long piece in 4, as shown. This will save you time
Then cut wide and thinner fringes as shown on the photo below. Don’t cut under the line above the binder clips.
Following this step, you will end up with this shape. Cut the top of the fringes as shown.
When you open it up, it will look like this. Make another one so you have two in total.
Shaping the petals of your peony
Gently stretch the petals between your fingers. Don’t worry if one breaks, just cut the broken area deeper and you will have a very realistic looking new peony petal. Or two.
Stretch one of the petals with its “tummy” directed towards you and the other – directed to the opposite side. This will help the messiness of the petal head.
You can also add more details to the petals, by folding each one in two, and then cutting the inside area…
… which will create a charming new shape.
Making the black peony head
When both fringed strings are ready, glue them by stretching the bottom of the paper around the stem.
Be careful to keep the area round like a ball.
Then cut about 10 bigger petals like the ones shown below and shape them again by stretching with your fingers. The important thing here is their “bottom”. It needs to be longer. This bottom will be glued whole on the top of the first petals and will make the construction stronger.
Glue the big petals one by one as shown.
Then secure the whole area with thin paper strips/strings and PVA glue. Glue, stretch and wrap it around, glue, stretch and wrap again… If paper string breaks, don’t worry, start again and keep going.
How to make the leaves or let’s work with some green!
Cut 6 long pieces of paper as shown.
Shape them to look more like leaves and stretch…
Glue them on the bottom of the paper head.
Now it is time to make the branch leaves
Cut rectangular pieces of paper as shown and then cut them on the diagonal.
Then turn one of the triangle pieces upside down and glue it on the top of the other. The white lines show the directions of the paper crinkles you have to keep in mind. Put glue on the longer side of one of the triangles. Don’t put too much glue, because it is wet, and your paper pieces will get curly and crinkled. Leave to dry for at least 10 minutes
When the triangles are dried, open them as shown.
Glue a piece of wire on the back of the petal and cover it with a strip of green paper – the same way we already did with the stem.
Make at least 3 leaves like the one shown. Put them on a top of each other and wrap with a green paper string and glue connect them together.
Then connect them the same way to the main stem of the peony. And open the small leaf stems.
Cover the peony stem from the top to the bottom with green paper string – this will smooth out all the unwanted shapes and – of course – will make your flower look like a real one. If you have enough patience, you can also cover the stem with a thin layer of PVA glue, which will make it stronger, smoother and a bit shinier.
When the PVA glue has dried well (give it about 30 minutes), you can sculpt the shapes of all the petals and leaves of your flower – stretch, curl and twist them as you prefer.
And your stylish black peony for home decoration is ready. Put it in a vase and enjoy your craft!
If you like paper flowers, why not to see this article about How to create Amaryllis crepe paper flower
If you are a Peony lover, check my article on How to create a Coffee Filter Peony!
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