How to Make a Paper Daisy

I love making paper flowers.  I can spend hours playing with different papers trying to create a whole garden's worth! I think they're great to add to cards, tags and gift wrap to make a pretty statement and add dimension. When I was little I had a kit where you could make flowers out of tissue paper, I think that's where it must have started.

A selection of my handmade paper flowers.

One of my favourite flowers to make is a daisy. They're such simple little flowers and have that association of making daisy chains in childhood reminding me of summer days. They are also very effective in a crafting project and look impressive - and they're really easy to make which makes them even more appealing!

Here's how to make one of your own...

You will need:

 

A strip of white paper 150mm long and 10mm wide, a strip of yellow paper 70mm long and 5mm wide, scissors, a quilling tool or cocktail stick, glue.


1. Take the strip of white paper and using the tip of your scissors make small cuts along the length of one long edge. Make sure you only cut half way across so that the other long side remains as it started. The cuts need to be only 2 or 3mm apart.

2. Get the strip of yellow paper and place it on the white strip at one of the short sides overlapping it a little. Make sure the 5mm width of the yellow paper is lined up with the uncut part of the white paper and the two bottom edges are lined up. Glue the yellow paper to the white paper where it overlaps.

3. Place your quilling tool or cocktail stick at the end of the yellow paper which isn't glued down. Start to roll the paper up around the tool or stick.

4. Continue rolling the paper.  Keep going when you get to where it joins the white paper.

5. When all the paper is rolled up, glue the end of the white strip of paper to the rest of the flower.

6. Carefully remove the quilling tool or cocktail stick.  Use your fingers to spread out the 'petals' of the daisy.  You're done!

You could also try:

• using different colours of paper;
• inking the edge of the petals when you've finished (I love when real daisies have a pinkish tinge to the edge of their petals and it looks really good on paper daisies too);
• making an upcycled one - they look great made using old book pages; 
• varying the length and width of paper - just be aware that the bigger the paper, the 'bulkier' the flower which could get a little difficult to handle when rolling;
• adding glitter glue to the edge of the petals of the finished flower for a sparkly effect - this looks especially nice if the colour of the glue is the same as the colour of the paper.