Paper Flowers

There is this wall in our kitchen that needed some happy.

And I needed a project to get me back in the groove of things, so I made this banner.

We've been talking in our house a lot lately about being a light....showing Jesus to people we come in contact with every day. Some days we totally nail it. Others, not so much. But we're working on it. So I thought this verse displayed in our kitchen (where we spend so much time) would be helpful. :)

And just so you know...I know it looks like the John 12:36 is crooked. It's something weird with the angle of my camera. Really. Kept measuring and looking at it b/c the photos kept coming out crooked, but it's right if you look at it in person. Weird, but true.

But anyway~ the chipboard banner is from Daisy Bucket. The papers are a mix of a few of my favorites: Pink Paislee's Fascinating, October Afternoon's Report Card, and a little 7 Gypsies and Melissa Frances too. Mixing paper lines can be tricky, but it will free you up, I promise. ;)

This is the lower right corner. Just a few flowers, a button with some hemp tied through, and some coordinating ribbon. Add some ric rac and buttons, and you've got it.

Here's the upper left corner. The small flower consists of a stack of 5 flowers with a jewel on top. The one in the lower left corner is 3 torn circles, crumpled up, and inked. Add a button with some more hemp (or ribbon if you prefer) on top. The arrangement of ribbons are held together with two trinket pins from Maya Road~ these are my favorite embellishments right now....fab.

Ok...now for the how-to on the argyle paper flower. I learned this last fall on a website, and have been combing the internet for the past couple days trying to find where I learned it. If/when I find it, I will post it here. Definitely want to give credit where credit is due.

You will want to start with a 5x5 square of patterned paper. Going larger is fine, but I wouldn't go any smaller. Gets really hard to work with.

Fold the square in half diagonally.

Fold in half diagonally again.

And then one more time.

Next, hold the folded corner between your fingers, and round off the open part of the fold.

Open your paper to see your flower.

Now, carefully crumple it up. This will give it some dimension and make the paper softer and easier to work with.

Turn the flower face down, and use a glue dot to stick a button (medium-sized) in the center. The color doesn't matter~ in fact, I used one that I didn't like, because it's not going to show.

Wrap the paper around the button and secure with a rubberband. I recommend those small, clear ones that are used for little girls' hair.

Then flatten the paper back out and you have a flower!

If you like you can add a button or jewel, some ribbon, or you can leave it like it is.

Ink it up. Make it yours. :)