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How to Make Paper Flowers

Making your own DIY paper flowers is really simple! We’ll show you how to make paper flowers using newspaper, construction paper, and muffin papers! These jumbo paper flowers are the perfect way to celebrate spring and add a pop of color to your home.

RELATED: Flower Templates

Make a whole bouquet of colorful flowers and stick them up on your fridge, wall or bulletin boards.

Easy Paper Flowers

If you have any newspaper lying around, it will come in handy for this project! Not only is it a great way to upcycle the newspaper, but it also is nice and thin, so easy to cut when folded.

And if you love recycled crafts, see my recycled crafts for kids books.

Spring Flower Craft

Supplies Needed

  • Newspaper – choose pages that have words instead of photography or flyers (it will be easier to paint over)
  • Paintbrushes – large, for painting newspaper
  • Scissors – for cutting the flowers
  • White glue – to layer the flowers
  • Pencil – for drawing shapes or tracing templates
  • Printable templates – you can get them at the bottom of the post
Easy Folded Paper Flowers

Watch the Video Tutorial

How to Make DIY Paper Flowers

How to Make Folded Paper Flowers

1. Paint the newspaper.

Lay out a few pages of newspaper, trying to use pages with mostly words instead of photo-heavy pages, or flyers. Try to use pages or sections of pages that are about the same size as a piece of construction paper, or a little bit larger.

Apply a quick coat of paint onto the newspaper. We like it when the text shows through the paint so you only will need one coat of paint.

Set aside to dry.

When dry, if the papers have curled up on the edges, place the pages under a stack of heavy books for a few hours to press them flat.

Painting newspaper

2. Fold the paper.

Select your paper: construction paper, or a piece of your painted newspaper.

Fold one corner up and across itself to the opposite edge, forming a right-angle triangle of folded paper, with a rectangle extended out along one edge.

Note: if you are using a square piece of paper you won’t have the extra rectangle on the left side as shown below.

First fold on red paper

For the second fold, take the corner (shown here on the right) and fold it over to meet the other corner of the triangle on the left.

Second fold on red paper

Use scissors to trim off the overhanging paper rectangle.

Recycle or save this scrap for another craft.

Cutting excess off of red paper

For the third fold, again take one corner of the triangle and fold it over to meet the opposite corner, forming an even smaller triangle.

Third fold on red paper

Now for the final fold – this time, take the right-angle corner of the triangle and fold it over to meet the other side. You should now have a narrow triangle that resembles half of a kite.

Fourth fold on red paper

3. Draw a shape on the paper.

Use the printable templates (found at the bottom of the post) as a guide to trace a petal shape onto the folded paper.

Or, skip the templates and create your own shapes! Remember to leave the folded edges at least partly intact – similar to cutting paper snowflakes. If you cut away too much of the folded edges, the paper flower will fall apart.

Drawing template onto paper

4. Cut along the pencil line.

Use scissors to cut along the line you just drew. The folded construction paper can be tricky to cut through, so little ones may need assistance.

Cutting along pencil line

5. Unfold the paper.

Unfold the paper flower and hold it up to see the shape. If you want to adjust the shape, refold it and trim some more.

Repeat this process for as many flowers as you’d like to make! Be sure to make some flowers larger and others a bit smaller, so that you can layer them together and still see the flowers underneath.

Opening up red paper

6. Fold cupcake muffin liners.

To make the small center flowers, choose a colorful cupcake muffin liner and fold it in half, forming a half circle.

Folding muffin paper in half

Fold it in half again, from corner to corner.

Second fold on muffin paper

Again, fold the muffin paper in half, making the wedge even smaller.

Third fold on muffin paper

Finally, fold the cupcake liner one last time.

This fold is optional – it can be tricky to hold the folded muffin paper together when this small, so you can skip this final fold for smaller kids.

The printable templates include options that should fit with and without this fold.

Fourth fold on muffin paper

7. Draw a shape onto the muffin paper.

Similar to the larger paper flowers, use a pencil to draw a shape or trace the printable template onto the folded muffin paper.

Drawing template on muffin paper

8. Cut out along the pencil line.

Use scissors to cut out the shape you just drew.

Unfold the cupcake liner to reveal the small flower! Repeat as many times as needed.

Cutting excess from muffin paper

9. Assemble the flower.

Apply a small circle of glue to the center of the large paper flower.

Applying glue to big flower

Attach a medium-sized flower on top.

Attaching medium flower

Apply another small circle of glue to the medium flower.

Applying glue to medium flower

Attach the small muffin cupcake liner on top.

Attaching small flower

There are so many different and unique ways to combine these folds and cuts.

Mix and match colors, sizes, and petal shapes to make each flower unique. Use the printable templates provided at the end of this post or reference the images below to create different flower shapes.

Flower Craft for Kids

How to Cut the Paper

See the reference images below for how to cut the paper. You can also use our free printable templates and trace the templates.

Small Flower Folds

Medium Flower Folds

How to Make Medium Sized Paper Flowers

Large Flower Folds

Large Paper Flower DIY

Get the Free Printable Folding Flower Templates Here

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