DIY Swirl Paper Flowers

                            

So these paper flowers are my absolute favorite thing I have made so far. I saw the same set of directions on many different blogs and websites about creating flowers out of a simple swirl drawn on paper. Here are my few suggestions and at the end I'll show you 10 of the 1000 places I have used these flowers :).

First, it really is this simple. You draw a swirl on a piece of paper and cut it out. The bigger your swirl, the bigger your flower. If you use an entire 8.5x11" piece of paper your flower will come out to be approximately 2.5-3" in diameter. Here are the sizes I have drawn:

The swirl to the far right is almost an entire sheet of 8.5x11" paper, the two in the middle are also pictured below they take up about half of an 8.5x11" sheet. You can tell by scale how small the littlest guy is on the left.

Like I mentioned earlier, the largest swirl will create a flower that is about 2.5-3" in diameter.  The middle swirls will create a flower that is about 1.5" in diameter and the smallest swirl will make a flower that is less than an inch in diameter.

The second tip is that depending on how wide your swirl is, the flower will look very differently. The petals will be as tall as the swirl is wide. So, in the picture below the swirl on the left will be a very flat flower and the swirl on the right will turn into a taller flower with more dimension. I used a combination of both of these, however the wider swirl is MUCH easier to cut.

Thin                                             Wide

 The last tip is that the direction of the swirl does matter. You will drive yourself crazy if you draw the swirl the "wrong" way. Pictured below is the best way I can thing to show you how to make the swirl, assuming you are right handed (if you're a leftie just reverse it.) This way, when you cut the swirls it will be much easier to cut. 

 

The next step is to cut out the swirl.  Once you are done it should look like this: 

 Then, place the swirl with the pencil markings down and begin to roll the edge towards you: 

Keep rolling.......

Now grab the rolled paper and leave a bit remaining at the end and use your glue gun to place a generous amount of glue where I have drawn the pink X. Keep one finger on top of the flower like shown below and press down onto the glue and hold for a few seconds.

If you'd like you can let the flower loosen in your hand if you'd like it to be bigger and not have such a tight swirl in the center. I let the flower loosen completely and then glued down and here is how it turned out:

They are a bit time consuming to make, but once you get the hang of it it's not that bad! Here are some more pictures of what I have used the flowers for:

Chalkboard Sign

Chalkboard Frame

Boutonnieres