Crepe Paper flowers are my newest obsession

I have officially fallen down the rabbit hole of crepe paper flowers. See below for photos of my first attempt and the books that I found at the library to help me get started.

My oldest is allergic to pollen, and therefore flowers, which is really unfortunate. Mostly because I love having fresh flowers in the house, but also because we can’t use flowers as gifts post performances (she’s super into musical theater) or decorations for birthdays. There have been a few times recently where we’ve really wanted to get her real flowers — for her recent spa-themed birthday party and a Sweetheart Dance at her school — but couldn’t.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about ways to scratch the flower-giving itch without giving her actual itches or sneezies in the process.

Enter in PAPER flowers.

For The Big’s fifth birthday, we made a million colorful tissue paper flowers. Not only were they gorgeous, they were super fun to make. We made close to a fifty for the party and The Big loved them so much that they stayed in her room for over a year as decoration. The only reason they came down was because we moved to a new house, otherwise they would probably STILL be up.

I had thought about making a smaller version of the tissue paper flowers for a bouquet to use for her birthday, but all of those plans were thrown out the window when I came across the wonderful world of crepe paper flowers.

All I can say is OMGWOW.

They are like tissue paper flowers on steroids.

So I did what any normal human (well, crafty human) would do and checked out every book from the library that I could find. And then hit up the craft store to track down some crepe paper, floral wire, and floral tape to try my hand at it (affiliate links in case you can’t find any at your local craft store).

Even before making my very first crepe paper flower, I had a feeling that it was going to be similar to what book binding feels like for me: a precise and technical process that has an unlimited potential for creative play. I also knew that I was going to suck at it just like I did with the book binding … until I didn’t. And that it was going to be frustrating as all get out until I got the hang of it.

I’m happy to report that I was right on all counts and cannot wait to dive deeper into the process. My brain is running a mile a minute with ideas and my hands are twitching to make a million and one more flowers already.

Here are the first flowers I made:

I found this tutorial on crepe paper flower making from Martha Stewart Weddings and thought the directions to be pretty easy to follow. These are (from left to right): a pinky peach rose, a red tulip, and bright pink peony.

And here are the books I checked out from my local library (with affiliate links) in case you are interested in trying your hand at crepe paper flowers making as well: