Paper flowers are made using a variety of papers.
When I was little, I made many kinds of flowers—paper flowers—out of origami paper, and as an adult I’ve used tissue paper for decorations.
Paper flower designs are wonderfully diverse, ranging from lifelike creations to fantastical ones you’d never see in reality.
In this article, I’ll introduce paper flowers made from different types of paper.
Along with classic materials like origami and tissue paper, I’ve also gathered ideas that use unexpected supplies such as kitchen paper towels and memo pads.
I hope you’ll use these as inspiration to decorate your room or to give as a gift!
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Paper flowers that brighten everyday life. A diverse array of blooms created from simple materials (1–10)
Round flowers made with a craft punch
It looks very delicate, but there isn’t a single difficult step.
However, because the parts are small, you’ll need to do fine, detailed work.
To make the flower’s center, take a long strip of paper, snip fine cuts along one of the long edges with scissors, then roll it up tightly.
For the petals, use multiple flower shapes punched out with a craft punch.
It’s a bit tricky to cup the center of each petal one by one, but putting in the effort here will make your piece look three-dimensional.
The time you spend focusing on the process is, in a way, a little luxury.
Take this opportunity to experience the joy of papercraft.
Bleeding Art Flowers with Kitchen Paper
Draw patterns on aluminum foil with water-based markers, then mist with water to create a bleeding effect.
Place a sheet of paper towel on top to transfer the ink, and let it dry.
Once dry, cut out many circular pieces from it.
These pieces will become petals, so glue them one by one along the rim of a paper cup, overlapping as you go.
After everything is glued, remove it from the cup and flip it upside down to finish.
It’s a fun idea to change the bleeding patterns and ink colors to express your own unique flower.
Giant Sunflower Made with Tissue Paper
The steps—accordion folding, tying the center, and then opening it up one sheet at a time—are the same as when making flowers with tissue paper.
However, in this idea, to represent the tubular florets that become the sunflower’s seeds, you stack brown tissue paper on the center of yellow tissue paper before accordion folding.
With this simple touch, you’ll get a paper flower that anyone will instantly recognize as a sunflower.
The finished size is large, too, so if you use them for summer wall decorations, your room might just turn into a sunflower field!
paper flower fan
Here’s how to make paper flower fans, a classic birthday decoration.
Once you learn it, you can easily create decorations to suit your taste.
Accordion-fold a sheet of origami paper, overlap the two ends, and fold it in half.
Glue the inner edges to form a half circle, then attach another identical piece to complete a circular paper flower fan.
You can switch up the origami colors, add eyes and a nose to give it a character look—the variations are endless! Of all the versions I’ve seen, the Poké Ball one left the strongest impression on me personally.
Gerbera made from memo paper
Gerberas have two types of florets: one is the ray floret, and the other is the disk floret.
In this idea, we’ll create two layers of petals and a flower center, and combine them to represent a gerbera.
Both types of petals are made with paper cutting: fold a memo sheet into the specified shape, draw the pattern, cut it with scissors, then layer and glue them together.
For the flower center, take a strip made by connecting memo sheets, make fine slits along one edge, and roll it up tightly from the end.
Glue the center to the middle of the petals, and it’s done! Looking at this delicate finished piece, no one would guess it was made from a memo pad.
Paper Cup Flower
Fold 5 cm square construction paper into triangles and cut the edges round to make lots of pieces.
Once you’re ready, just layer and glue them onto the rim of a paper cup with the bottom cut out! When you look down from the top and can no longer see through to the other side, stop layering and let it dry for a bit.
Then remove the construction paper from the cup, turn it over, and—surprise! It looks just like a real rose! It’s perfect for gifts and celebrations, and it made me want to try making one too.
If you use multiple colors of construction paper, you might even create a brand-new rose variety!
Basic paper flowers made with tissue paper
Flower paper is often used for wall decorations at graduation and entrance ceremonies.
Stack several sheets of tissue paper, accordion-fold them, tie the center with a string or the like, then gently pull up each layer from both ends one by one.
These become the petals, so fluff them out while checking the balance.
Many 100-yen shops sell pre-accordion-folded sets, which make it easy to create flowers.
You can also change the impression by trimming the ends into different shapes.
Give it a try in whatever style you like.