How To Paper Flowers- Valentine's Day Decor

I love Valentine's Day decor, I think the hearts and all of the pinks are SO cute. I was scrolling Pinterest for ideas as one does. I stumbled across a few paper flowers in various shapes/ shadow boxes and knew I had to make one too!

So lets get started!

I was actually a bit intimidated by this project at first as I'm fairly new to the Cricut world and have really only worked with vinyl and iron-on. However, once I started to get the hang of it, it wasn't that bad!

Supplies: 

Cricut Machine- I have a Cricut Maker 3!

Cutting Mat- I recommend using one that is slightly used or a lighter grip mat. This will help with the removal of the paper. You want it sticky enough that the paper doesn't move around, but a little less grip so it is easier to remove without ripping.

Tweezers- I used the Cricut tweezers to help with the rolling of certain flowers. This link takes you to an Essential Tool Kit which has the tweezers and scraper!

Scraper- This makes removing excess paper from your mat a BREEZE. 

Paper- I just used cardstock from Hobby Lobby, but you can use it from anywhere (amount really depends on how many flowers you want)

Glue- I started with glue dots (hated it) and then switched to Tacky Glue

Steps: 

1. Design

First I found my flowers in Cricut Design Space. All of the flowers that I used are from there, but I do have Cricut Access. Below are the codes listed for the flowers- typing these in will bring you to them!

• Hibiscus (I used this one the most because I think it is so cute) #MFAD3B7
• Rolled Flower #M3D7E1
• Cactus Flower #M102B489

2. Cutting

Next is cutting the flowers! Which is pretty easy on the users part as all you have to do is put it on the mat and let the machine go! 

*I selected the "cardstock" material setting and left it on default pressure. I later switched it to "less pressure" as some of the finer details were ripping. 

This process was a bit tedious as I didn't plan out my flowers very well and how many I wanted. I cut a few different ones, but the ones I listed are the ones that turned out the best for me!

My little "helper" liked this project and kept trying to eat the flowers as I was trying to organize them. He is also the culprit behind my forever dirty cutting mat.

3. Assembly

The final part of this project is assembling the flowers. Which is really just glueing and folding to get your desired look. 

I found it easiest to lay all of the flower pieces by the type so that I could work in sections and keep the pieces together. 

As I stated earlier, for the rolled flowers I used the Cricut tweezers to help me roll them. I used the tweezers to grab the end of the paper flower (the end without the circle base). I then just wrapped the paper around the tweezers holding tight and trying to keep the base as level as possible. Towards the end, I did find it easier to take it off of the tweezers and do the last bit with may fingers. 

 I then let it go just a bit to loosen the flower to my desired look. Then I added a bit of glue to the circular base and glued it under the flower.

The next flowers (hibiscus and cactus) were really just glueing the pieces together and giving the paper a folded look. So I just assembled the pieces and folded the edges to give it more of that 3D look. I used the tweezers to help add pressure when glueing so I didn't push down all of my folding. 

I then added all of my flowers to a wooden heart as I thought it would be cute for Valentine's Day! You could easily add your flowers to any box/vase!

*Some of the flowers pictured here I made with the left over pieces of the flowers that didn't work (ie: the bigger dark red at the top with the leaves)

If I were to do this again I would definitely make the cactus flower smaller as it is SO much bigger than my other flowers, but oh well!

I think it turned out so cute and I'm really excited to add it to my Valentine's Day/ Spring decor!