I love flowers. Just having them nearby lifts my mood and makes the whole room brighter. Unfortunately, flowers are both expensive and fragile, and after a few days and $20, you’ll end up with a vase full of dried-up stems. Not so pretty. Also, if you have a roommate/bridesmaid who happens to be allergic to fresh flowers, just forget about it. For my upcoming wedding, I wanted to give my bridesmaids flowers that that they could keep forever without blowing my whole budget. The solution? Paper flower bouquets!
I am an avid lover of all things Japanese, so I jumped at the chance to incorporate my passion into my wedding by creating kusudama flowers out of paper. These flowers are origami created by folding and gluing together individual petals, and when you attach a bead or button to a wire stem in the center, you can create beautiful arrangements with them. A quick Google search will instantly pull up several ways to make these flowers, but beware: not all tutorials are the same. My first few flowers came out looking shabby until I found a good YouTube video by user simplekidscrafts.
A quick search on Etsy revealed that buying pre-made paper kusudama could cost you more than $50 for a full bouquet, not including the cost of shipping, which we all know is modern-day highway robbery. A pack of cardstock on sale at a craft store, a bundle of wire flower stems and a pack of buttons costs about $8.50, and will yield about 28 flowers — a much better deal. And if you’re shopping at a craft store, always check online for coupons first. Never pay full price for anything when you don’t have to.
One of the really cool things about these paper flowers is they’re created by gluing several paper petals together, leaving a hole in the center for stems, pencils or whatever else you can think of. I’ve heard of people buying Christmas lights and putting the bulbs in the center of their flowers. Provided, of course, that this doesn’t prevent a huge fire hazard, this would be a great way to add a pop of pretty to your apartment or dorm room. Add a pretty bead to the center and poke a wire through the top of a petal to create adorable dangly earrings.
Unfortunately, when I decided to make my paper flower bouquets, I chose a lovely patterned card stock pack and completely ignored the fact that I would have to bend it. Card stock was made for creating cards, not intricately folded paper shapes, and I’ve gotten some serious hand cramps as a result. The thick paper will hold up nicely as a hard-working bouquet at a wedding, however, so it may be worth it in the end. If you’re trying this out for yourself, practice on origami paper first. Or even Post-it notes.
To date, I have 10 paper flowers created, and it’s taken me about seven minutes to craft each one, taking into account the pesky cardstock and adding a wire stem. Each bouquet will have 12 flowers, so this truly is a labor of love for my bridesmaids and my wallet. For a less formal occasion, this is a perfect project you can do with your friends or roommates to add some inexpensive pretties to your apartment. Put on “Say Yes to the Dress” or “Duck Dynasty” and add some cupcakes (or cake pops if you’re really in the DIY spirit). The best part is, when you’re done, you’ll be one step closer to being an origami/DIY master.
