Paper Flowers Tutorial #1: "Lily"

After I'd researched all of the various ways that one can make paper flowers, and finally settled on the paper punch method, I got down to business - and found that making these gorgeous little flowers was actually pretty easy! Today, I'm going to do a tutorial on how to make the first - and easiest - of the five flowers. I've been calling this one "The Lily." (Even though I think it really looks more like a mum. But hey, I'm a bride, not a botanist.)

Step one: Remove cat from crafting table.

Step two: Gather your materials. I used the "Retro Flower" punch by EK Success in four sizes: XL, large, medium and small. You'll also need some glue - I've been using Paper Source's PVA glue, but hot glue would probably work, too. Finally, you'll need something fairly thin and cylindrical for poking and rolling. (Insert dirty joke here.) No, seriously though! I'm using an eyeshadow brush from Sephora, though anything relatively small and round will do.

For paper, I suggest using cardstock - it holds the curls and folds better, and will probably make a sturdier finished product. These flowers will all work with regular paper, too, but I prefer the look of cardstock.

Step three: Punch out your shapes. For the lily, you'll need two XL flowers, two large flowers, one medium flower, and two small flowers. I'm using shimmery gold paper for the smallest flowers to add a little bit of contrast, but you could keep it as monochromatic - or as multicolored - as you like.

Step four: Begin bending the petals inwards towards the center... like so:

Step five: Crease and release. Repeat until all petals have been creased.  They will look something like this:

  

Step six: Begin folding petals one by one down the center of the petal. 

They'll look like this when you're done:

Step seven: Take one of the XL flowers and dot the center with a little bit of glue. Place another XL flower on top of the first flower, making sure to align the petals off-set so they overlap each other like this:

Step eight: Keep going! Dot the center with glue, add the two large flowers, the medium flower and the two small flowers. Each time, make sure that you're positioning the flowers perpendicular to the previous flower.

As you build the flower, it gets more difficult to glue the smallest layers into the center of the lily - so use that poking tool to smush 'em down!

And.... ta-da! You've got yourself a paper lily!