Paper Flower Hairpins

I love making these paper flowers out of sheet music or book pages. There's plenty of opportunity to customize your paper to special occasions; I was once commissioned to make these with pages from a bride's favorite book to be worn with her wedding updo. I've also skipped the hairpin step and made bunches of these flowers for a wreath. Read on to learn how to make them.

You will need:

-Sheet music, book pages, or desired paper

-Scissors

-Felt

-Bobby pin (longer pins, at least 1.5", work better; mine are from the dollar store)

-Pearls, wood, or beads for center

-Hot glue or Elmer's glue

-Pencil

-Optional tea or paint for staining paper

If you'd like to give your flowers an antique, weathered look, try staining your paper. You can use watercolors or tea.

Prepare about one cup of tea. Place your paper on a baking tray and run the moistened tea bag over the surface until the whole page is wet. Let dry several hours or overnight. The less water used for brewing, the darker your paper will turn out.

Alternatively, add some brown and yellow watercolor paint to a jug of water. Use a wide flat brush to coat the whole page in color. Let dry completely before proceeding.

Print out the six-petaled flower template I've provided, or design your own. If you make your own, be sure to have six petals to follow the rest of this tutorial properly. I traced this template right off my screen onto a piece of scrap paper. 2" diameter works well, but these flowers scale larger very easily.

Cut out the template and trace it onto your paper three times with pencil. Cut out each of the three flowers. Erase any stray pencil marks once you're done cutting.

Now you'll make a custom cut on each of the flowers. I've marked these cuts in red on the fourth and fifth photos. On flower one, make a vertical cut from the center to in between any two petals; on flower two, cut out one petal; on flower three, cut out two petals.

On each of the three "big" flower pieces (six petals, five petals, and four petals), you'll overlap the petals on each side of the cut. Put a little hot glue or Elmer's glue on the front of one petal, then wrap the adjacent petal completely over this petal. Press down and hold until the glue is dry.

Repeat this process for each of the the three big flower pieces.

Adding a little curl to your petals makes them look much more textured and elegant. Grab a chopstick, pencil, or other thin cylinder and gently roll the edge of each pencil outwards. Also do this step for the two flat petal pieces we haven't touched yet; it's much harder to curl them once they're assembled.

You should now have two remaining flat pieces: a two-petal piece and a one-petal piece. Wrap the two-petal piece around itself and secure it closed with a dab of glue. You may have to scrunch the bottom a little; that's okay. Finally, attach the one-petal piece to the outside with another dab of glue.

Add your bead, pearl, or piece of wood to the center of the flower with a generous amount of hot glue. You can also sew the bead directly through the paper, but I find thread to be less sturdy than hot glue.

Flip your four pieces upside down and cut off their points. This will allow each part to lay flat against one another. Arrange the pieces from largest to smallest. Put several drops of glue on the inner bottom of the largest piece, and drop the next largest piece on top of the glue. Hold together in the desired position until the glue dries. Repeat until your flower is fully assembled.

If you do not want to wear the flowers, you're done!

Otherwise, take out your felt and bobby pin for the final step.

Cut a small circle of felt just large enough to cover the cut bottom of the flower. Make a cut from the center to the edge of this felt circle to allow it to form a cone shape. Slip the felt through the looped end of the hair pin and apply hot glue or superglue to the flower-facing side of the felt. Press the felt and pin down onto the flower until the glue is completely dry.

You're all done! Experiment with the thickness of your paper, size of beads, and number of petals. I like repeating this tutorial with the largest piece omitted, then wearing both a large and small flower in my hair. You can even add paper leaves or vines.