How To Make A Paper Flower Boutonniere or Corsage

Inspired by Martha, I made boutonnieres and corsages for all members of our wedding party from tissue paper and wire. Let me show you how.

Need To Have:
cardboardrulerpencilscissorstissue papera ball-shaped object, ca. 3 cm in diameterartificial stamensgreen florist tapeflorist stub wire (ca. 20 gauge)wire plierssome woody herbs (optional)brooch pins

Need To Do:

First, make a 12.5 cm x 6 cm cardboard template. You will need this to cut out the petals to size.

For one flower, you will need 5 petals. Use your cardboard template and a pencil to draw 5 rectangles onto tissue paper in the colour of your choice. You can fold the paper into 5 layers if you like and cut out 5 petal shapes at once.

To form each petal, wrap your tissue paper halfway around a ball-shaped object. I used a little styrofoam ball for this, but you could also use a marble, a bouncing ball, or any other object that is about 3 cm in diameter. Twist the ends of the paper together like you were wrapping a piece of candy. Be quite delicate with this and careful not to rip the paper, but make sure that both ends are tightly twisted. Then carefully remove the ball.

After you have shaped each petal in this fashion, take one of the petals and about 8 - 12 of the articficial stamens and attach them to each other with florist tape. Add the petals one by one, until you end up with a flower shape. Don't worry if your flower looks a bit wonky at this stage, that can be rectified later.

Take a piece of stub wire and attach your flower to it, with the help of more florist tape. Cut the wire at the required length.

Cut off the twisty bits from the ends of your petals and arrange them in a nice blossom shape.

For our boutonnieres, I went out into the garden the day before the wedding and picked some rosemary, lavender and sage to attach to the paper flowers. I cut the herbs to the same length as the wire stem, stripped the lower leaves and attached them to the flower with the florist tape. this made the boutonnieres look more interesting and they also smelled really nice!

For the final step, take the brooch pin and attach it to the back of your creation, using the trusted florist tape. 
Et voilà! Your done!

P.S.: Keep your eyes peeled for the Wedding Month giveway. I will post the details later today!

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