How to Make Crepe Paper Carnations

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By Jane Smith
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Make Beautiful Crepe Paper Carnations!

Crepe paper carnations make beautiful decorations for May Day, Cinco de Mayo and Mother's Day. They are also good for Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Crepe paper flowers look like the ruffled skirts of the beautiful folk dance costumes worn by women in Mexico and other Spanish-speaking countries.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Crepe paper petals from Step 4
Green pipe cleaners

Making the Petals

Step 1

Lay crepe paper sheets on top of one another, then fold in half.

Lay out seven or eight 8-by-11 inch sheets of crepe paper on top of one another, narrow side facing you.
Step 2

Fold in half by taking the bottom edge of the pile to the top.

Working from the narrow end, take the bottom edge of the pile of paper and fold it up to meet the top edge.
Step 3

Fold again.

Fold in half again.
Step 4

Trim the bottom corners so they are rounded. Slash the straight edge.

Trim bottom corners so they are rounded, but do not cut across the bottom of the petal. They will be unfolded along that line. Slash the straight edge to about a third of the way down the petal so that you will be able to ruffle it later.

Adding the Stem

Step 1

Open your petals. The stem will be placed across the fold line as shown.

Take the petals you rounded in step four of section one and open them along the fold line.
Step 2

Pinch the center of the petals along with the center of the green pipe cleaner. Fold the pipe cleaner in half so that the two ends of the pipe cleaner are touching and the loop at the top goes around the pinched petals. Twist the pipe cleaner near the top of the loop so that it pinches the petals together very tightly, then continue twisting the pipe cleaner together all the way to the ends.
Step 3

Your finished carnation should look fulffy like this one.

Carefully twist and pull each petal into place so that the flower is very ruffled. Shake it back and forth when you are done to poof it up even more.

Comments

thesquirrelymom said

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on 11/11/2008 My grandmother use to make paper flowers. I hadn't thought about that in a long time, so your article brought back some memories. Thank you.