DIY Paper Flower Wall

By far the most traffic I get to this site is for the paper flower wall! You can still find the individual blog posts about the paper flower walls (there are two versions) in the blog archives but this page combines all of the info.

INSPIRATION
My first inspiration for the wedding was this pin I came across on Pinterest. I've yet to find the original source of this picture from Pinterest, every pin brings me to another pin and then eventually to a broken link, so if anyone knows the original source do let me know!

FIRST ATTEMPT

So I went on a mission and dragged my loving mother into it (she is my crafting buddy and inspiration.) We started one night watching Pretty Little Liars (one of my guilty pleasures) and messed around with a huge pack of 8 1/2 x 17 paper we found at a discount store. These were some of our first creations:

We sat on the living room floor and searched for websites with instructions on how to make flowers with only paper, tissue paper and of course, a glue gun.

To make the giant paper poppy (top right) and tissue paper flower (bottom right) we used directions from Martha Stewart Crafts. To make the paper rose, we used these instructions (also from Martha) but instead of crepe paper, we used our thick white cardstock paper. 

The last flower in the bottom left was a random creation of our own by cutting simple petals shaped like pointed ovals, folding them in half, and making the same center as the giant paper poppy. We learned that the more imperfect you cut them, the more realistic they look - and the more petals you add the prettier they are :). That means more work as well.....

So by the end of the night our living room floor looked like this:

One last addition in this picture are the cupcake-paper carnations. We made this out of boredom and only have cupcake (things? what are they called? holders?) left. But guess what - found 'em on Martha Stewart as I am searching now.

My main goal was to have flowers of all shapes, sizes and texture as long as they were white - but I really wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. The next issue was figuring out how to make a wall like in the original Pinterest find. In our basement we had three huge thin metal panels that my mom had used to attach design ideas. Well, we took those out of her studio and decided to put magnets on the back of each flower. We used simple round magnets the size of nickels, they are really inexpensive as well. Not everyone has these laying around, and they actually wouldn't be too difficult to construct - a thin sheet of sheet metal that can be measured and cut at your local home improvement store and then lined with a relatively thick wood trim. You'd want to secure wood around the entire perimeter of the metal as well as two-three horizontal pieces to make sure the metal stays firm and doesn't droop inwards.  (I've also now made a second version of this wall with three large canvases that turned out well and is a cheaper alternative!)

Here are a few pictures of what the three panels looked like at 90% completion.

                

We covered all of the remaining grey background that showed through above with simple white leaves that were filled in under some of the flowers.

The final version is below!

 

 

 

I don't have an overall price estimate for the wall that includes the metal sheets since we already had them - but to make these flowers the paper, cupcake holders, and tissue paper totaled approximately $100. If you buy bulk ahead of time you can save a lot of money doing it! The second attempt, below, only cost $12 for paper/coffee filters + the canvses which were $100 using coupons at Michaels Craft Store.

SECOND ATTEMPT

Now for version two, I wanted to make something to hang in the wall in my office. This version includes a bit more step by step instructions.

This time I'm going to make the wall on canvases with hot glue.  It will still be in three segments like before, but the canvases will be up on artist's easels. This is still going to be large and create a statement, but it's also much easier to transport, store and use in my home!

The canvases are the following dimensions 24"x48", 36"x48" and 24"x48".  They are really quite substantial and when I lay the three of them together they cover about a 7 foot by 4 foot space. I am planning to stand them up tall - so they will be 48" high PLUS the height of the easel which I'm hoping will make the whole thing right around 7 feet tall. With the three separated and then placed on easels or hung on the wall it's also going to give more flexibility for the set-up. I'll be able to arrange them in one straight row either lined up flush, or with a gap between them to make it appear larger. I'll also be able to position the two end canvases at an angle which is something I thought would have looked interesting with the last wall, but wasn't possible.

I started with two main supplies this time. A pack of 200 coffee filters and a pack of 100 sheets of thick cardstock paper. Last time we used any type of cardstock or thick paper we found, and honestly a year later the flowers are still keeping shape pretty well! This time, I decided to try a thicker paper. (Mostly because it was all they had and yes, that is how most of my decisions are made!) I bought cardstock from Michael's that says "heavyweight" on it and also says 110lb. o the paper was $12.99 but with my 40% off coupon, seriously don't even walk into Michael's if you don't have the Michael's coupon app on your phone!!, it was $8.00.  Then the coffee filters from Target were $1.00 for 200.

So, first step - making the small, filler flowers. This can be a little discouraging and I did this last on my previous wall. I decided to start with this first this time around. When you are finished making large flowers there are often gaps between the flowers, some of you may not mind that - especially if your canvas is white and your flowers are white - I however, am OCD and need to have every square inch of this covered. So, under some of the large petals that poke up or in between two odd shaped flowers you need small filler flowers to fill the gaps. The coffee filter flowers are the best for this.

Each coffee filter flower takes 6 coffee filters: 2 cut for the base layer, 2 cut for the middle layer and 2 cut for the top layer.

Base Layer: Fold the coffee filter in half, three times.  Then cut the shape as shown below.

Middle Layer: Fold the coffee filter in half, four times. Then cut the shape as shown below.

Top Layer: Fold the coffee filter in half, four times. Then cut the shape as shown below. 

You need to fold and cut two of each layer to make the flower, I suggest you keep all of the leftovers, just wait for the following step. Hot glue all six of these on top of each other, placing a dab of glue between each layer in the following order: 2 base, 2 middle, 2 top. Now all that is left is the center of your flower.

I used the left over trimmings of my coffee filter to make the center of the flower.  After you cut out one of each of the layers, your leftovers look like this:

You can use any that you want, but I used the one in the bottom right (the trimmings from the base layer). I grabbed this and squished it together and it instantly looks nice because of the style of the coffee filter itself. See below:

Then, with no real method to my madness, I used way too much glue and covered the bottom of this and pressed it onto the flower. Alternatively these could look really cute with buttons in the center, circles cut out from a different color paper, etc. 

The pack of 200 coffee filters will make about 33 flowers which is a really great start to filling your flower wall. Now, it obviously isn't going to look like much progress is made, but you'll be really happy you have these towards the end of the project. I am planning to use two full packs and make about 60 flowers. 

Now, it's time to get started making the bigger flowers. The next step after making a good amount of base flowers is to make the largest flowers on the board so you can get an idea of how much space is left when creating the medium and small sized flowers. When I say large flowers, the ones that I'll show how to make next range from 18" to 24" in diameter. 

First - the basic petal flower. This flower is the easiest to make.  In the picture below you'll see the shape of the petal you need to make. Next to the cut out petal, you'll see a full 8.5x11" piece of paper for scale. Each petal should be the size of a full piece of paper. 

Once you've made 6 petals, stop and fold each petal in half using the point of the petal as your guide for the center. It's ok if this isn't perfect. 

You'll see in the picture above that the petals have been folded in half to create more dimension.  There are six petals here and they are easy to arrange.  The petals all line up in sets of two. See below:

Once you've glued the three sets of petals you can arrange them on top of one another as shown here:

Then, you'll recognize the center of the flower- which is one of the coffee filter flowers from part 1 of this post.

I made five of these big guys, three for the center canvas and one for each of the smaller side canvases.  You can see how things are starting to fill up here:

The remaining flowers are generally just variations of what was posted in the first two. Instead of teardrop shaped petals, you could try skinnier petals, or heart shaped petals. Vary each type in a few different sizes and you've got a great assortment. These coffee filter flowers are really gorgeous in person and definitely make the wall! I'd encourage you to add as many of these as you can!

So, below are photos taken at a DC event. I love how they used it. This wall was three canvases and they hung them from the trees in the yard. What do you think?! Obviously these girls know how to throw a party, the table is beyond gorgeous!

Event Planners: www.fleurishevents.com

Photography: www.sweetrootvillage.com

And here is the wall in it's new home at my office: