Paper Poinsettia Tutorial

This tutorial was inspired by the Paper Poinsettia's at Bloomingdale's  (you can find pics of them online or on Pinterest)

 I made my own pattern to make some in a similar style. 

So today I want to show you what I did and share my pattern with you. 

The pattern and tutorial are free for personal use.

Happy Holidays!

To use the pattern you can right click and save the image to your computer and then print it out, OR you can right click and select "View Image" to see it on your computer screen (zoom in by holding down ctrl + to get it to the size you like), you then treat your computer screen like a light box, hold a piece of printer paper against it and "lightly" trace the pattern pieces with a pencil. (I say "lightly" because you don't want to damage your screen especially if it's an LCD screen) (sorry guys, I'm not buying anyone a new screen :)

1. Cut the pattern pieces out and trace them onto vintage paper. (I like to use lots of different patterns and papers from old books etc.) I stack 2 sheets together and cut 2 pieces out at a time. You need 2 pieces to make 1 petal.

 2. Next cut some wire about 2-3 inches longer than your petal. You need 1 piece of wire per petal.
I used some steel wire from the hardware store but you can use any wire (floral wire, jewelry wire, etc)

 3. Open up to two halves of each petal and apply glue down the center of each and all over one half.

4. Place the piece of wire in the center and flip the opposite petal half onto it and press over the entire surface with your fingers to seal.

One petal down....

lots more to go....

 Make lots of petals ( I made 20 small & 18 large to make two large flowers)

 5. Tear apart a Christmas pick from the floral dept at your local craft store. They tear apart easily so you can use the small pieces as stamens in the middle of your poinsettia.

 6. Now gather some of those pieces and tape them together. You can use floral tape but I didn't have any so I used some freezer tape I had on hand. Plus the color goes with my flower. :)

 7. Now it's time for bling. Put some tacky glue in a small container and mix it with a few drops of water. Not enough to make it thin but just enough so that it brushes on well. (you can also use mod podge, or gel medium but I prefer tacky glue for the glass glitter as it has a strong bond) Brush the glue onto each petal.

 8. Pour German Glass Glitter onto the glued petal and shake off the excess onto a piece of paper or a paper plate.

 9. Let your petals dry.

 

 10. Now gather some small petals, large petals, and glittered petals along with the center stamens and tape all the wires together. You can add more petals on the outside if you didn't gather enough to start with. You will know when you open them out and it doesn't look full.

 11. Slowly open out all your petals and bend them, the wire in the center of each petal will hold it's shape.

 This is what the back will look like.

 as you can see this pattern will make a pretty large flower

I can image making a bunch of these and decorating a Christmas tree with them.

I hope you like them and I would love to see the ones you make.

Enjoy!