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Hi Guys, it's Robert. So with the winter holidays behind us, I know it feels like spring
cannot get here soon enough. So I thought for today's DIY we would get a jump start
on Mother Nature and make some flowers. But not just any flowers—giant paper flowers. So
let's get started. I love this project because the primary material
is simple, inexpensive, colorful construction paper. So the first thing we will need
to do is to create a template for our petals, and the way we will do that is by taking a
piece of card stock, tracing a bowl, or a small plate to create the upper rounded portion
of the petal, and then take a ruler to create the sides, tapering it slightly at the bottom. For
each flower, you are going to want to repeat the shape in three different sizes.
The next thing we will need to do is to trace and cut out our petals. But to prevent
you from having to cut out each one individually, we are going to stack two to three sheets
together at a time, trace the template on the top one, clip the stack together, and
then cut it out. The clips will prevent the paper from shifting around while you cut. For
the flower I'm creating today, we are going to need five large petals, three medium, and
three small. Once your petals are completely cut out, stack them according to size, and
then we are going to cut a slit in the center of the tapered bottom. This is going to
allow us to create petals that are three dimensional. Begin with the largest petals, and if you take the
paper on either side of the cut, and gently overlap it, you will see that the petal begins
to sit up. Now the large petals create the exterior of the flower, and we want them
to be fairly open, so we are just going to overlap them gently and then staple them in
place. Go ahead and do this for all five of the large petals.
Next we will move on to the medium size. We want these to stand up a little bit taller,
so overlap the two sides of that cut a little bit more and staple those in place. And
then for the smallest size, we want these to stand up the tallest of all, so overlap
those two sides even more and then staple them together. Now we are going to begin
to construct the flower and we'll move back to the large size petals. We are going
to connect these by gluing them at the base, overlapping each one slightly. I'm going
to be using hot glue, because it dries quickly and will speed up construction. Once all
of the large petals are connected at the base, you will see we have formed a little bit of
a cup shape. Next move on to the medium size, apply glue on the underside, press it
down into the interior of the cup shape, and overlap each one slightly to create our second
ring of petals. And then for the smallest size, do the same thing: apply glue on the
underside, place them down into the center, overlapping each one slightly.
Finally, we are ready to create the center or the stamen of the flower and the way we
are going to do this is by taking a sheet of paper, cutting it in half lengthwise, and
then taking each of those pieces and folding them in half lengthwise. Next we will take
a pair of scissors and create a series of cuts down the entire length of the fold. You
can use a regular pair of scissors or what you see I am using here is actually a multi-blade
scissors just to speed up construction. When you're finish cutting, open up those sheets,
and fold them in the opposite direction. This is going to create a little bit more dimension. Staple
them at one end, and then begin wrapping them around the top of a pencil. When you have
coiled it all the way around, seal it in with a little bit of hot glue, and then attach
the second piece of cut paper, wrapping that all the way around and again finishing it
with a little bit of hot glue. Take the stamen, flip it upside down, apply a generous
amount of glue and then press it down into the center of your flower.
It looks pretty good at this point, but we want to finish it off with some foliage. To
do this, take a sheet of paper, fold it in half lengthwise and cut out half of a tear
drop shape. To add a little bit of extra dimension, we are going to fold this accordion
style, but doing it at an angle. Fold it all the way up the leaf, and then when you
open it up, you will see it has created some great ridges. Apply a little bit of glue
and adhere it to the underside of the flower. I love these flowers because they sit flat,
making them perfect for party decorations. They are fantastic as centerpieces or on your mantle. Or
if you have some temporary adhesive you can even mount them on your wall. I do hope
you will give this project a try, experiment with some different colors and petal shapes. And
I hope they add a little brightness and cheer to your space. If you enjoy these DIYs,
I want to invite you to subscribe to my own channel, following the link in the video description
below. Thank you so much for watching, and join me
next time for another great DIY project.