How to Make Paper Bag Flowers

Re-purpose your gift bags into honeycomb flowers.

You can turn paper bags into honeycomb flower decorations -- it only takes about five minutes to cut and assemble each flower, but their size and dramatic colors create a visual feast. Host a crafting party a few days before an event to create these decorations while catching up with your friends and you'll get double the fun and enjoyment from each flower.

Things You'll Need

• 6 to 12 colored paper bags per flower
• Scissors, pinking shears or scrapbook scissors
• Hole punch
• Double-sided tape
• 1/4-inch-wide satin ribbon
• Optional:
• Watercolor paints
• White craft glue
• Iridescent and metallic glitter
• Brass brads

Instructions

1. Lay your folded paper bags on a flat work surface, with the open end facing away from you. Cut the bottom off each bag, right at the fold line.

2. Cut each bag into a pointed arch shape by removing the two corners from one end of the bag, from the top to about 1/3 of the way down each folded side. These are your flowers petals. Punch a hole at the bottom center of each petal shape.

3. Position one petal-shaped bag so that the pointed end faces away from you. Cut a 3-inch-long piece of double-sided tape and place it vertically at the bottom right edge of the bag. Press a second bag on top of the first, making the side and bottom edges flush.

4. Stack more bags in this manner until you have stacked 9 to 12 bags, as children's book illustrator Anna Alter advises, or 6 bags, as wedding invitation designer Mackenzie Sala recommends. The 6-bag stack makes wider petals, while the 9- to 12-bag stack makes a fuller, more dramatic flower when you open it.

5. Thread a 1/4-inch-wide length of satin ribbon through the holes in your stacked bags and tie a small knot or bow to prevent your flower from falling apart if the double-sided tape fails. Make the knot close but loose, so that the flower will have room to open, yet not to much room it collapses.

6. Pull the top bag around to meet the bottom bag and place one last piece of double-sided tape along the bottom edges between the two bags. Your flower should automatically unfold.

7. Poke one last hole through the first and last bags and thread a length of ribbon through them to hang your flower.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do not want to make honeycomb flowers, you can cut circles with diameters between 2 and 12 inches from your paper bags to make table flowers similar to the ones you see in Mexico for Cinco de Mayo. Paint each circle with watercolors or cover them with designs made from glitter and glue. Once they dry, crumple them and stack them, using a brass brad to hold them together.

References

• Painting Bunnies: Made by Hand -- Paper Bag Flowers
• Something Old, Something New: Paper Bag Flowers
• Diary of a Crafty Chica: Paper Bag Flowers