diy by Kate Pruitt 103

diy project: giant paper flowers from ruche

You may remember the wedding of our lovely D*S contributor Brittany Watson Jepsen. Her huge paper blooms made such a splash that she started selling them in her shop, and just recently Brittany wrote a great article for Brooklyn Bride about the paper flower trend. I’m thrilled that this is a growing phenomenon; I adore anything made in exaggerated scale, so I feel that the more giant flowers and plants there are in the world, the better.

This particular giant-flower DIY project comes from the creative team at Ruche. They decided to make these giant fantasy flowers for their spring lookbook, which is aptly titled “Enchantment.” Read below for the story of how this project came to be, and find the full tutorial after the jump. Thanks for sharing this awesome DIY, Ruche team, and thank you, Brittany, for being on the forefront of such a cool trend :) Enjoy! — Kate

Our creative team brainstormed ways to turn our spring lookbook, Enchantment, into a daydream. When the idea of oversized flowers came about, we couldn’t wait to make them a reality! Josh, the CFO of Ruche, used his engineering background to design the stems, and with the help of additional Ruche team members, they created them by hand at our warehouse. Surrounded by tissue paper and scissors, our talented set-design interns designed and created the rest of the flower pieces at our warehouse. Once they were finished, the whimsical daydream came to life. — The Ruche Team

Read the full how-to after the jump!

Materials

  • plastic cups
  • cement
  • approx. 5” wide stucco corner
  • approx. 20-gauge tie wire
  • gloves and wire cutters
  • tape, glue, and scissors
  • tissue paper
  • dried moss
  • zip ties

Instructions

Making the stem:

1. Determine how many flowers you’re going to make and pour cement into the corresponding number of plastic cups. Let harden.

2. Purchase stucco corner (sturdy wire) from your local hardware store. The pieces we used were 5” in width.

3. Cut the wire into desired stem lengths. We varied each stem from 3 to 8 feet high. Remember to protect your hands with gloves!

4. Use the cement cups as a base and mold the wire into stems.

5. Cover the wire stems with tape for a smooth surface.

6. Glue layers of tissue paper onto the surface until the entire stem is covered.

Making the leaves:

1. Purchase approximately 20-gauge tie wire from your local hardware store and cut into desired lengths. Remember to leave extra length at the end (to attach to the stem later).

2. Twist pieces of wire together to form the leaf base.

3. Cut layers of tissue paper into leaf shapes.

4. Glue the layers together around the wire base.

5. Poke the leaves into the stems.

Making the flowers:

1. Cut layers of tissue paper into petals of various sizes.

2. Form the smallest petals into a bouquet. Tape the bouquet’s stem to keep the layers together.

3. Add the next layer of petals and tape and repeat until you have reached the desired size.

4. For the flower centers, cut circles out of tissue paper, scrunch the edges, and glue two layers together.

5. Glue moss into the center of the circles.

6. Attach the center to the petals, and the flower is complete.

7. Use zip ties to attach the flower to the stem.

You’re done!

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diy / diy projects
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103 Comments

Tasi Rippel

Absolutely Magical! Bringing my favorite Alice in Wonderland scene to life!

mf

Wowza!! I would love to make them, but definitely don’t have the space to make them or anywhere to place them! Umm if the D*S office hosts a giant flower making event, I’ll be there :P

Stacy

Wow! These are amazing! Perfect for fun interiors, bridal showers or weddings! Gorgeous! Totally inspiring a craft night. =)

exactlydb

LOVE the way these can softly dominate a room. I may try to hang them in clusters in a corner like pictures.

Cori

So cute! I had a huge flower similar to this when I was younger. I think I got it from some fair. I think it would be fun to try to make one of these!

Nina

I really need that dress for an alice in wonderland themed wedding. Where did it come from!???

Dina

Wowwwwww,so beautiful!!!!!!lovely!,love the pics to!thanks!!!!!

Sonja Kat

Is there a template for the leaves, petals, etc, as well as quantities? I also would like to make several of these to decorate a space.

gabrielle

this is so beautiful!!! if only we can make them cat-proof….

Su

LOVELY!!! It would be an awesome photo booth backdrop for a wedding…

Lena

I can’t wait to make these.

Few questions first:

Any online recommendations to buy lovely shades of tissue paper?

What type of glue did you use to adhere the tissue to the stem?

Thank you!

Katie

I want to recommend chicken wire – it would work well and be cheaper!

Anna

I adore these. Only thing I’m wondering is if there’s a more attractive way to attach the flower to the stem other than zip ties. Looks great from the front, but what about the back?

Selena

Love this it brings me back to the tissue flowers we made when we were kids but better!

Anna D-B

What size tissue paper did you use? How many cut layers for each petal size?

Jaine Edwards

I love, love these. Thankyou for sharing! I’m going to make them for my Spring dinner party on the tree house patio . They have these giant flowers within the rain forest in Martinique and you have given me the tools to bring these to life in my own home. Thankyou!

Abby Grace

Oh! I love this! I wish I had an occasion to use it! I suppose I’ll just have to create an occasion, then :)

Kris

Anna you could just cover up the ties with extra tissue paper! :-))

Elizabeth Dean

So many questions: what kind of tape did you use? Did you have to order the tissue paper from somewhere or would the kind you find for gifts be acceptable? Any particular kind of hot glue/wax?

Kim@popcosmo

SO adorable and absolutely magical! A great project for teens to brighten up a corner of their room – thanks for sharing.

Agnes

I would also like to know approx. how large each petal is & how many of each size you used per flower. (Just to get a rough idea of how much tissue paper to order) And what kind of glue that is. Thanks! Beautiful project!

Clayton Matthew

I adore these. I’m thinking a few over the headboard of a bed would be a great way to add some whimsy to a bedroom. I’ll have to try it! Thanks for the tutorial!

Annabella Merlin

These are gorgeous flowers! It will definitely make a wedding more romantic1 Plus it’s cost effective! Love! Love! Love!

Jerie Armentrout

IF my daughter ever got married, I’d love to make these for her wedding….or at least for a gorgeous shower!!

Bonnie

These are awesome! If my daughter ever gets married (she’s 29), she would love these!

Lavette

Simply, beautiful, charming and delightful! One day I’m going to try and make them.

Deepa

I tried this project with chicken wire like someone had recommended. The stem is too flimsy and doesn’t stay upright and definitely can’t hold the weight of a flower. Instead of restarting I inserted a dowel rod all the way from the top to the stem base. It still wouldn’t stay straight up because the dowel rod shifts the weight over. I have to somehow secure the rod to the cup. Still working on that. I may have to scratch this and buy stucco corner. Home Depot did not have it. Hope you all will have better luck than me.

Emma

My friend and I are working on making these right now in shades of teal and green. We’re using them for the background for my engagement photos. Thank you for this beautiful idea!.

Eleonore

I’m also working on this right now to use in my studio. I bought diamond mesh from Lowe’s, so I hope it works. I also bought Aleene’s tacky glue. I think that is the glue in the photos posted.

Liv

I have been making a bunch of these with 5th and 6th grade kids for our spring concert decoration… it does work with chicken wire but you need to wrap it round a bunch of times to get the strength… I cut 14inch wide piece for a 5ft flower stem and then wrapped it round and round to get the stregth to hold up the flower head!

They are looking amazing… incidentally if you are doing this with kids… I found the chicken wire stem bit the most difficult and did that bit myself and let them do the rest!

Lauren

Ooh, I have no idea what reason I’d have to make these, but I’ll come up with something. They are stunning for photographs, that’s for sure!

Leah Vanderzwaag

I am making 26 of these for my wedding in May. I started last night and with 8 of us we got about half way done… I am having trouble making the leaves so if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them. I ABSOLUTLY LOVE these flowers though! So excited to see them totally finished!

Amy L

I had trouble finding the stucco corner, but Home Depot has a 6″ by 25′ roll of Kwikmesh in the roofing section that seems to work…

Holly

I made these I used double sided tape made it muchhhhh easier and I used the Diamond Mesh, I first tried with chicken wire and I DO NOT recommend it! Also, buy the white duck tape it was super sticky and made the stem smooth. The flowers I cut the petals 8 of 4 different sizes layered biggest to smallest taping each layer with double sided photo tape (the kind you use to scrapbook) once finish I flipped the flower smallest on the bottom now pinched and twisted, stapled it. I had trouble at first doing it the original way so I hope these help!!!!

Crystal Hill

I have all the same questions as others, can someone answer for us please?
Where did you get beautiful colored tissue paper? What kind of tape did you use for the stem? Can you give us an approximate size for flower pedals? Who is the model in the picture?

Julie

How much is this project costing people? I’m just curious because it seems like the expenses could add up quite quickly.

melika

The creative workmanship and detail of these flowers are Romantic and Beautiful!!!

trudy

Oh, I wish I had known about in September! I was given the task of helping a young woman decorate the lobby of the theater our community theater group uses. The play was “Alice in Wonderland”. Two aisles go off from the lobby into the seating area. The director asked us to represent “bigger” on one side and “smaller” on the other. We used some of the techniques shown here to make giant flowers but the overall effect wasn’t nearly as pretty…we just couldn’t find a good way to make the blossoms! Sending a link to this site to my friend. You never know what the future holds! Beautiful work!

Michaele

Tissue paper can be found at Papermart.com. They are well priced and arrive quickly without folds in the paper. We are making these as part of a teacher appreciation day and can’t wait to see the results.

Melissa

I can’t wait to make these for my Wedding and Event Design Studio. They will be displayed with a dessert table. Thank you for giving me the instructions.

suzanne

Hey… I’m in the process of trying to make these Fabulous flowers…
Did anyone have problems with the tissue paper on the flower stems ripping?
Like, during transportation?
If mine turn out, I’m going to donate them to my daughter’s school carnival… and they can maybe raffle them off as an extra fundraiser.
I’m thinking if the the tissue paper wants to rip, perhaps I should mod podge strips of tissue paper on? Does anyone have tips???

theperfectnose

Use fabric instead of tissue paper on the stem (especially if you want to re-use the flowers) same goes for the leaves. You could use modpodge to give it a papier mache effect but this will increase the weight despite being the sturdiest option. To make it lighter and more portable you could also replace the wire in the stem with cardboard of intermediate thickness (the kind used for support envelopes-or just reuse the envelopes). Any kind of double sided tape will do or you could use glue tape (comes in a dispenser and works like double sided tape). Hope that helps.

suzanne

Thanks for the tips… !! I have not decided quite what to do… have to think some more. In the mean time… my cement is hardening and my stucco corner is ready… :)

Vivi

Beautiful flowers! I am looking forward to start on this project!

Karen

Thank you! I do windows for our family-owned boutique & am always looking for ideas. What a perfect way to welcome spring &/or summer. I am in the process of making 30 of these right now. Can’t wait to see them in our windows!

Katie

I’m halfway through making ours, we used newspaper to cover the mesh wire and so far its looking fab! Just making the leaf, we also used wet sand to weigh down the paper cups as h2b thought it would be heavier than concrete, feels pretty weighty so hoping it will work. Hoping the flowers aren’t too tricky to master, this is my first wedding DIY! So desperate to share with my friends and family but want it to be a surprise on w day! Good Luck everyone, if I can do it, anyone can!!

Diana Liford

I have been looking for what seems like forever for either a pattern or a diy article for “good” paper flowers and here it is. I NEVER thought I’d find one for flowers this big. What a wonderful bonus!!!! Thank You!

cindy

How did u size the petals? Im assuming the first layer is a whole sheet, but what about the other 2 sizes? Just making sure I get this right :) I was thinking to turn just the flower into center pieces for a family reunion coming up REALLY soon. Hope to get some feed back thanks!

Christine at DIY+FYI

Hey everyone, I just did this awesome craft project for easter at my church. I have some helpful hints at my blog (http://diyandfyi.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/diy-giant-tissue-paper-flowers/).

To answer some of the questions I see on here…hope that helps!
@Sonja, Anna, Agnes, and Cindy – The number of petals and size is up to you! I used 4 large, 6 medium, and 4 small. And my large petal was half a whole sheet. My flowers turned out about almost 3′ wide. The bigger the petals, the harder it will be to keep it together and without it getting heavy.
@Crystal – I used masking tape. I used tissue paper from Target (they have lots of vibrant colors!).
@Julie – I made 3 flowers. Total cost was $20. Breakdown: Each 10′ stucco corner piece was $3.40 each. My Home Depot had a 8′ size too. I imagine this is a pretty standard building material so be sure to ask an employee before assuming they don’t have it!
@Suzanne – I inserted the stems and flowers on-site so I didn’t have to worry about pieces bending and ripping. Doing on-site is better too because there may be site issues you aren’t aware of until you arrive (for example, there was a short wall where I was setting up, which forced me to insert my stem on the side opposite of the short wall.

Edelyn

How long did it take to you to make it? I want to make this for my niece’s Christening in June.

Erin

Im curious about the diamond mesh vs. the kwikmesh. Anybody have luck with one or the other? It seems like the kwikmesh might be flimsy over a few feet tall.

Jodie Hickman

Awesome! The huge size makes these stand out from all others.

Amy

LOVE these! I am going to make some this weekend and see how they turn out. I love flowers I don’t have to water every day :)

paperaeroplane1334

Interesting that I stumbled upon this. Earlier today I saw an identical flower in the window display of a photography studio. I didn’t know it was a trend. hmmm.

Elven Mountain Bride

This is amazing. I’m going to try this for my wedding! Big thanks to those involved in the project, and for posting it online for others!

Pat Briggs

I recently looked at large flowers to purchase, saw the price and decided not to.
Ha ha I can my own now. thanks

Pat Briggs

I saw some large flowers the other day, thinking of buying a few, NOT when I saw the price, now I can make my own. Thanks so much.

Kathy

Instead of the chicken wire you can cut a large branch and set it inside a piece of log with a hole drilled out for the branch. Then cover the stem in green and add the flower. Or paint the branch green.

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