Paper Peonies

Sorry it's been a while - wedding planning seems to be taking up my time these days, as the big day draws ever nearer!

I've got something lovely to show you today, though!  Even if I say so myself...

I've spent this weekend making these beautiful peonies out of crepe paper - and I love them!

SUPPLIES

These were my supplies, which I ordered online.

I ordered these from Little Craft Bugs - an online store I'd not used before, but it seemed to have a good range of supplies for paper flower making.

You never quite know what you're going to get when you order online, but I'm so pleased with these items - they were perfect for the job.  The crepe paper is very good quality - thick and nice and wrinkled / kind of 'concertina-ed' (not a word!) and I just love the colours!  It is actually floristry crepe paper, so not the cheaper stuff you'd buy for crafting with kids etc.

These colours are from this range in the below options (top to bottom):

Light Fuchsia
Light Pink
Rose Pink
Yellow

The Rose Pink is actually quite a corally/peachy pink - which is actually perfect as I wanted pinky and peachy shades.

They only had a light green in stock in this section, so I bought green in a bigger roll - this one in Clover Green for the leaves.

I also ordered:

1.2 mm 30 cm long floristry wires (which I believe equates to an 18 gaue)
Green floral tape

I had to rush to hobbycraft when I started, as I realised that I didn't have any glue left in my hot glue gun.  When I was there I also bought some additional wires:

22 gauge 25cm long floral wires - these are thinner than the 18 gauge ones and I used them for the leaf stems.  Each flower needs three leaves, each on its own stem.

You use a hot glue gun to adhere the flower together.


MAKING THE PEONIES

Ok, that's the boring supplies out of the way!  (I wanted to put them here in case anyone wanted to try it for themselves.  Also, so I remember in future years!)

I can take no credit for these beautiful peonies - I merely used the template and followed the instructions of Lia Griffith:

Blog Tutorial - includes link to template PDF
Youtube Tutorial

The only changes I made were to make the whole flowers smaller.  Instead of printing the template on A4 paper, I traced it off my computer screen at the size it opened up at, as I didn't want them to be as big as Lia's.  They are still peony-sized - hers are just extra big (which is beautiful of course!)  I also used the thinner wire for the leaves, but the thicker wire for the main stem of the flower.

Cutting our your pieces is quite time consuming - especially when you just want to start to put your flower together!  It's worth it, though.  Shaping the petals is very satisfying!  You can see below what one of the petals looks like before and after shaping.  That crinkly surface is what makes it so easy to shape.

They really do end up looking like petals!

The first one I made was in light pink...

... and I was hooked!!  I can't believe how beautifully it came out!

As soon as I finished I embarked on one in rose pink... that beautiful corally colour...

Aahhh, so pretty!!

Then finally onto one in the light fuchsia...

I love them all!

I am planning to have them in a vase at my wedding, on the table with the guest book.  Then if I manage to get them back from the wedding intact, I will display them at home.  Or else I'll just have to make more, as I need them in my life!

What do you think?  Would you give crepe paper flower making a go?  I can wholeheartedly recommend it - I am so in love with these peonies!


Check out more of my wedding crafting here.

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