How to Make Paper Roses

These roses are made from crepe paper rather than the traditional tissue paper. You'll find that crepe paper can be curled and manipulated easily with your fingers and that the ridged surface of the paper adds an interesting texture to the flower petals. Follow these simple steps to make some authentic-looking paper roses for decoration or just for fun.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Cardboard
• Clear Tapes
• Green Floral Tape
• Scissors
• Pencils
• Card Stock
• Crepe Paper
• 16-gauge Or 18-gauge Florist Wires

1. Choose crepe paper for your roses. Some of the most popular colors are pink, red, yellow and white, but you can make your roses in any color you like.
2. Draw a square onto a piece of card-stock paper or cardboard. Make a rose petal shape by rounding off each interior corner of the square. You should be left with a shape that somewhat resembles a circle that is flattened at the top and bottom.
3. Draw petal shapes in at least three different sizes. Put the smaller petals at the center of your rose, the mid-sized petals at the interior and use the largest petals for the rose's exterior.
4. Add a 3/4-inch-long rectangular shape, or stub, that extends from the center bottom of each petal. This stub will be the portion of the petal that is taped to the rose's wire stem.
5. Draw a leaf shape onto a piece of card-stock paper or heavy cardboard. Make sure that the size of your leaf is in proportion to the size of your flower, and add a small stub at the bottom of your leaf shape as you did with the petal shape in step 4.
6. Cut out each petal and leaf shape from the card stock or cardboard. Make sure that you cut along the curved lines made in step 2 and along the stub that was added to each shape.
7. Place each petal shape onto the crepe paper so that the ridges on the paper run from the top to the bottom of each petal. Trace around each shape with a pencil, one at a time, and repeat until the desired number of petals has been traced. Cut out each petal shape from the crepe paper.
8. Repeat step 7 for the leaf shapes (on green crepe paper). Instead of the ridges in the crepe paper running the length of the leaf, however, position the leaf shape so that the ridges run along its width. Make three or four leaves per flower and cut out the shapes from the paper.
9. Cut a length of floral wire (16- or 18-gauge) and wrap a small petal's stub around it. Secure the petal in place with green floral tape. Take a second petal and place it so that it slightly overlaps the first. Tape this petal into place as you did the first and continue, using larger petals as you move toward the rose's exterior, until all the petals have been wrapped around the wire.
10. Use clear tape to attach your leaf shapes onto the wire. Space the leaves along the stem as desired and tape the leaves at the stubs. Start at the base of the rose and wrap green floral tape around the length of the wire. Be sure to cover the taped portions of the leaves as you wrap.
11. Bend the petals of your flower backward, if desired, and arrange the petals as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• Use real or artificial rose petals and leaves as your models.
• Make a total of 12 to 16 petal tracings for each rose. A fuller rose will require more petals and a rosebud will require fewer.
• Create ripples along the petal edges. Gently stretch the crepe paper between your thumbs and forefingers all along each petal's edge.
• Curl the petal edges backward by running the crepe paper between scissor blades (as you would with curling ribbon). Start at the center of each petal and work outward in all directions until the entire surface of the petal has been covered and all petal edges are curled backward.