Introduction: Make Bouquets of Paper Flowers

About: Retired, doing art work now. Great. Have the time and the money to spend doing what I want to do.
In this instructable I have combined methods in various, previous instructables that I have made. Some new techniques are inserted so that entire bouquets can be made for your pleasure or gifts as desired.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

Paper of various colors
Glue, white pva, and hot melt glue with glue gun
Scissors
Wire cutters
Florist's wire and tape
Acrylic paint and brushes
Styrofoam or eps foam
Hotwire machine (optional if styrofoam is used)
Wood dowels for flower centers
Pencils, pens, straight edges
Burnishing tool
Pliers

Step 2: Cutting Paper Elements/Patterns

All parts of flowers are cut manually with scissors. You will be cutting petals, leaves, stems, stamens, pistils, etc. Real flowers are used as patterns, the included pictures show flower part patterns made from them. I save my patterns, so can make more flowers with less time involved, not starting from scratch each time. If you want to make some flowers, use pictures of patterns and draw from these. Photos can be copied, if desired, and enlarged or made smaller depending on your needs.

Step 3: Some Specialized Treatments

To include:
Painting parts of flowers, e.g., the centers of pansies, geranium leaves, etc.
Making water drops with hot melt glue.
Painting water drops.
Display sign
Dragon fly, bee, and butterfly made from paper. Butterfly is painted.

Step 4: California Poppy

All paper part are cut by hand. Good scissor and steady hands allow you to cut delicate leaves, petals stamins, etc.

Step 5: Paper Daisies

Fun to make, lot of individual  pieces, amazing variety, one of the first flowers of spring! A complete instructable is found here:   https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Paper-Daisies/      Pictures included show layout of petals, various materials to make centers with, and using floral wire and tape to make stems.

Step 6: Cosmos

Note how flower is mounted on a styrofoam base. Styrofoam is cut to shape with hot wire and is then glued to a tile base.  The weight of the tile stabilizes the display when the floral wire is inserted into the bae piece.

Step 7: Lilly

Lillies are fun a they are extremely dramatic in form and color! The large lilly is cut out of acrylic painted computer printout paper. Look closely and you can see some printed data!

Step 8: Zinnia

Zinnias have many many petals!  Patience and diligence pays off here. Each petal is individually scored to add to the realism.

Step 9: Sunflower

Everybody's favorite!

Step 10: Geranium

To make the geranium in paper, I went to the garden and picked a few samples I had growing.  Realism is achieved in details, cutting, painting, arranging, etc.

Step 11: Pansies

Step 12: Bachelor Buttons

For the bachelor buttons, each leaf is cut and as you can see there are many of them. They were fun to make, however and I think the results are stunning for such a small flower!

Step 13: Roses

Roses are always a favorite and a complete tutorial can be found here:   https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Paper-Roses/

Step 14: Coneflowers or Echinaciae

Here, I've chosen the pink coneflower to depict. A main structural element is the center part. This is formed from styrofoam on the hot wire machine.

Step 15: Final Thoughts...

There are many tutorials on flower making on the web, in the libraries, bookstores, etc.  I have presented my methods, some of which, I think, are unique. I have strived to make flowers that capture the beauty and color of garden flowers and some do approach realism. Thanks for viewing my instructable, and hope you have enjoyed your journey!
Makerlympics Contest

Participated in the
Makerlympics Contest

Valentine's Day Contest

Participated in the
Valentine's Day Contest

Papercraft Contest

Participated in the
Papercraft Contest

Spring's Coming Contest

Participated in the
Spring's Coming Contest