Crafting Paper Poppies
The art of crafting flowers from paper is a traditional hobby, but it has recently been enjoying a renaissance. This paper poppy is a good beginner project.
Materials required:
- light-weight crepe paper
- 1″ styrofoam balls
- stem wire or 18 gauge wire
- fine tip black marker
- floral tape
- scissors
- pinking shears
- low temperature glue gun
Seed Pod How-to:
- This will form the centre of the poppy.
- Glue styrofoam ball to the end of stem wire.
- Cut out a small square of green crepe paper, just enough to cover the styrofoam ball. Stretch the centre of green crepe paper between your fingers. This will create a curve in the paper, making it easier to wrap around the ball.
- Gather, pinch, and twist paper around stem wire and secure with glue.
- Using the fine tip marker, create the “crown” of the seed pod by marking the top with an X. Fill in the remainder of the X by drawing a series of lines radiating out from the centre.
Stamen How-To:
- This is the pollen around the poppy seed pod.
- Cut out two 2”x5” rectangles of black crepe paper. When cutting the paper, be sure that the grain of the crepe paper runs in the direction of the 2” width, not down the 5” length, otherwise stamen will not stand stiff.
- Cut a series of fringes along the entire length of the rectangle.
- Glue the end of this edge onto the wire just below the seed pod and wined this edge around, securing with glue.
- Repeat with second rectangle of black crepe paper.
- Trim the ends of stamen with pinking shears. Curl and rough up stamen with your fingers, making them look more natural.
Petals How-To:
- When cutting out petals, be sure the grain of the paper runs from the bottom of the petal to the top, not along the width of the petal.
- The petals used here are 4” wide by 3.5” tall. You will need 6 petals per poppy.
- Stretch the centre of the petal along its width between your fingers. Crimp the top edge of petals with your fingers.
- Crumple and then open up petal. This will create texture.
- Add glue to bottom of petal. Gather and pinch bottom end of petal, and then glue this end to the stem wire, just below seed pod.
- Repeat with remaining 5 petals, evenly spacing them out around seed pod.
- Wrap floral tape around the exposed base of the petals, the area where the petals meet the stem. This will give the stem a more polished look.
