Realistic Paper Rose

I first decided to try making paper flowers after seeing how expensive it would be to purchase a flower bouquet for my wedding. Since making this first bouquet, I have made many more paper flowers. With each flower, I have worked to simplify the process, use less materials and tools, and make them look as real as possible.

Now I want to share with you what I have learned with this instructional video showing you how to make a realistic looking rose with a minimal amount of materials and tools.

I hope you like it!

Let's get started!

Materials:

• Cardstock Paper (I used 1x off white and 1x dusty green)
• Floral wire (I use 24 gauge)
• Floral tape
• Hot glue sticks

Tools:

• Scissor
• Hot glue gun
• Wire cutter
• Measuring tape
• Pan scraper (usually used in the kitchen)

Cut your off-white paper into 5 pieces.

1 piece of 1.5 in, 2 pieces of 2 in, and 1 piece of 2.5 in (there will be one strip left that you can use to make more petals, or if you feel like making a bigger rose you can just cut the strips a little bigger.)

Now fold your 1.5 inch wide piece in half three times, and cut your first petals. The shape doesn't matter too much, and they definitely don't need to look perfect.

Fold the next two pieces in half two times, and cut the petals a little bigger than the first ones you cut.

The 2.5 inch piece you will fold in 3, and cut the three biggest petals for your rose.

Start with the smallest petals. Use the pan scraper to curl the smallest petals into small tubes.
For all the other sizes you will just curl the top part into a v-shape.

How to curl:

Press the paper onto an edge of the pan scraper, hold the paper and pull the scraper along the paper. (Watching the video will help you to understand the technique.)

Take your wire, and use the tip of the wire cutter to bend one end. This will make it less likely for your rose to fall off the wire once you're done.
Start with the smallest petals. Put some hot glue on the petal, and place it tight around the wire. Take the next petal, put a little hot glue on the bottom part, and glue it on an angle to the first petal. (Tight on the bottom - more open on top) Continue doing this until you used all 8 small petals. Rotate the wire after each petal. I use my thumb to bend the top of the paper, to make it look more like a real rose petal.

Now...on to the next paper petals. Put the glue on the opposite side of where the paper curls, and just on the bottom part. Press it to the little paper rose that you created so far. The bottom of that petal should touch mostly paper and a little bit of the wire.
Take the next petal, and glue it to the opposite side. The next petal goes into an empty spot, and so on.
Continue doing this until all the petals are gone.

Time to cut some leaves.You can make them very simple, or more detailed like you see in my images. It doesn't matter how perfect you cut the leaves. You will fold them in half, and give them a structure using the pan scraper. Always aim the scraper towards the middle of the leaf. After you are done with that bend both sides of the leaf to make it look even more realistic.

Always glue two leaves to a wire. Put some glue on the middle bottom part of one leaf, place a floral wire on it, and cover it with the second leaf. Make at least 2 of those. I made 5, as I think it looks very nice with more leaves.

Cut a 2.5 inch strip out of the green paper. Fold it, so you can cut at least 5 pieces out of it. I folded it 3 times in half. Cut long raindrop shaped pieces. Curl them from the round side to the pointy tip using the pan scraper.

Turn the rose upside down, and glue the first sepal piece so that it touches the wire. Take the next piece and glue it around 72 degrees turned (that way all 5 pieces are spread out evenly). If you use more sepal pieces, just make sure to spread them out evenly. Don't worry about it being spread out perfectly as there is nothing like a perfect real rose either ;)

It's time to put all the pieces together. Start right where the sepal touches the wire. Twist the floral tape around the wire multiple times until it can't get loose any more. Twist the tape downwards, and add one of the wires with two leaves after some twists. Continue for a little more and add the next leaves.

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and have created a beautiful little paper rose!