Thursday, April 30, 2015

How to Make a Giant Wallflower

I was recently inspired to make a giant flower for my wall when I saw one that Joanna Gaines used over a mantel in one of her installations.


Of course, this was at ten o'clock at night, after a home improvement TV marathon. No stores were open, so I needed to get creative with supplies!
I had a big stack of vintage lined strips of poster board -- the kind teachers use to make large handwriting samples. They were just about the right thickness and width to make petals, so I grabbed some scissors and glue and jumped right into the project!



For a gluing base, I glued some strips together to make a rigid larger piece (two layers thick), then used a large plate to trace a circle to cut out. Inside the circle, I centered and traced a smaller plate to create a gluing guide.


For the first layer of petals, I cut the strips in half, and cut the pieces into petal shapes and glued them down, then continued to add more layers of petals. Every so often, I cut the strips a little shorter. For the center, I cut "fringe" into several strips, then wadded them up and wrinkled the fringe until I was happy with the texture. The center was then wound into a spiral and attached with glue.


To give each petal dimension, I curled the edges inward with my hands, simply coaxing them into a shape I liked.


The resulting giant wallflower looked terrific in my entryway, and it only cost pennies for the glue!

For another paper wallflower tutorial, using vintage book pages, click here.


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