Papermates: Halloween DIY Flowers

One of the biggest accelerants to this paper flower making inferno is craft blog Aunt Peaches, whom I just adore for the fact that she loves glitter and knows how to make it stick, figurative AND literally (check out her tutorials for no flaking glitter funtime).

This small arrangement was a portion of a set I made for my room, cuz the lord knows I need to cram more flowers into this room along with plushes. The bottle is one you might have seen around; I bought it at a craft fair at SJSU once many years ago, and I just keep falling more in love with it. Bottles with wings are a weakness of mine, but this bottle is sturdy, with thick glass and a vertical line pattern on the body. The wing arc softly towards the front, which gives it a beautiful and appealing 3D quality.

Now paper flowers can be made of anything made of wood pulp (to an extent. I've yet to find a way to easily use my stack of handmade paper from college), so tissue paper, even tissues, are fair game. Most of my paper flowers are made from coffee filters. Pintrest LOVES coffee filter flowers, just run a search. Tons of flowers can be made from just a single box or bag of filters. Grab stacks of ten, dip dye in the dye of your choice, line dry flat or on a drying clothes line, then have at it. AP has more than one tutorial, and this one is my personal fav for the ease of making them. This tutorial is a little more involved and requires a little more of a learning curve, but these flowers are also just as lovely (also the story that goes with them is hilarious--AP and I have a very similar approach to writing I find).

The crepe paper used on this close up here (and on another flower) comes from this kit I got from Target. It comes with 2 rolls of tape, tons of precut and sheets of patterned crepe paper and a collection of stems to make bouquets off the bat. At around $15, its not a bad kit to use, though the instructions are a little lacking, the raw materials are actually pretty good.

The pumpkin is made from pipe cleaners. My god, pipe cleaners are proof there is a god, or at least a crafting god. You can do a hell of a lot with these things. Kids will play with these like no tomorrow. I've used these suckers for everything. Speaking of, the black curly-cue on the right side of the pic are made from 2 black pipe cleaners. I wanted a little Tim Burton flare for the arrangement.

The pumpkin is made by getting 6 long orange pipe cleaners, taking 2 green ones and attaching the green one in the middle of the orange ones then rolling them into discs and arranging them in a circle like a pumpkin. It takes a little time but you get used to it. Peaches has the tutorial for rings here, but instead of making a ring shape with the stem, just keep it long.

The black rose is made from 2 circles cut from tissue paper, folded into 4ths, cut with a scalloped edges, then a hole in the bottom, where I threaded the stirrers then taped each layer to the stick.

The top flower here is also made from the same kit, with the edges trimmed with some pinking shears. To attach the flowers, I ended up going with masking tape cuz I felt it would hold to the plastic stems (more on that in a sec) better than florist tape.

Florist tape, if you've never used it before, is a little tricky. Its not adhesive like regular tape, and requires you to stretch it before it becomes sticky. Stretching as you wrap is a little hard, but you learn quick. Its best to attach petals or rows of petals in layers rather than trying to attach them all in one go to the stem.

Now take a good close look at the centers here: the orange has the tip of a witches hat and the black rose has a clear orange pumpkin. What are those?

Here's a closer look at one of them with out petals. That little ghostie? Well, the black rose, the orange flower and the ghost are all plastic drink stirrers. They come in 4 kinds: ghost, witch's hat, pumpkin, and bat.

Don't believe me? Here's what the stirrers look like sans petals.

Like I said, I don't see sticks as sticks. I see flower stems in pretty much anything long and straight and vertical.

Hey. Knock off those naughty thoughts.

These stirrers came from Lucky's, the supermarket. For less than $2 I got 20. I couldn't resist. Can't you just feel the idea overload of what to do with them? i put a handful in a vase on the table, but seeing how nice the flowers here went, I'm probably going to festoon more of them with paper.

Here's also another awesome part of these: look at the witches hat (far left, orange stem). See that little black part? Well these suckers aren't JUST drink stirrers. They're also h'orderves picks. Yeah. Little halloween objects with essentially plastic toothpicks on the bottom. Man, if I ever have to stake tiny vampires, I WILL BE SO READY with these babies.

You think I'm crazy for being excited about those? Even my dad told me to go buy like 3 more packs. And he doesn't even craft with them. He just wants festive decorations for his nightly cocktails.

Hope it gives you a few ideas of how to dress up things around the house. Just don't blame me when you start making flowers out of your forks and spoons.