How to Make an Upcycled Paper Rose

Paper flowers make lovely additions to lots of crafting projects.  They make great embellishments for cards, gift tags and gift boxes as well as being decoration for anything from notebooks to table settings. One of my favourites (and easiest!) to make is a paper rose, and here I'll show you how to make one too. This tutorial is suitable for adults and children - but make sure you have adult supervision to use scissors.

I like to make them by upcycling paper from old, falling to pieces, unloved books, music sheets and maps, but feel free to use whatever paper you like.  Remember, if you are upcycling the idea is to make something that wasn't useful any more have a new purpose - so don't just rip up anything! Think if it's past its best or if it will be of use to anyone first.

This is the book I used which is clearly falling to pieces and has missing pages.  It went from this ...

...to this!

Instructions for making an upcycled paper rose

You will need: a square of paper about 6cm x 6cm (2 1/2 inch x 2 1/2 inch); glue (I like to use PVA); scissors; a quilling tool or cocktail stick.

1. Take the square of paper and use your scissors to round each corner. (Ask an adult to help if you're one of my younger readers - always be careful using scissors.)

2. Now cut into the paper about 1 cm (1/2 inch) down from the top right hand corner.

3. Continue cutting along the paper stopping about 1 cm (1/2 inch) from the left hand side.  Turn the paper clockwise and continue cutting.  Keep cutting in this spiral fashion until you have a finished paper spiral.

4. Using your quilling tool or cocktail stick, take the start of the spiral where you first cut and start to roll the paper following the spiral towards the middle.

5. When you reach the middle of the spiral gently take the rolled up paper off your quilling tool or cocktail stick while holding the paper gently in place.  Slowly let go of the roll of paper a little until it unfurls to look like a rose.

6. Now put some glue onto the circle of paper that was in the middle of the spiral and is now at the bottom of the rose.  Stick this circle to the base of the rose and hold for a few seconds to fix it in place.

 And there it is, your finished rose!

Once you know how to make them you can have fun trying different effects. Try...

• cut the original square of paper with a wavy edge instead of straight;
• colouring the edge of the square of paper with inks or crayons;
• using different papers - books, maps, pictures, magazines;
• cutting the paper to different sizes. 

This project and lots of other crafty ideas can be found at:
http://totallytutorials.blogspot.co.uk/