Paper Weddings

When I recently got married I really wanted to incorporate paper into my wedding in a unique way. I eventually decided a handmade cake topper would be the way to go, but had troubles finding ideas beyond the traditional plastic bride and groom.

So I contacted my favorite paper blogger, Ann Martin (All Things Paper) and asked her for ideas. Ann pointed me in the direction of Concarta who made the cake topper above. They make some of the most beautiful and unique cake toppers I've ever seen. And they are made of paper! I love the ones with the doggies.

BUT, while perusing Concarta's wonderful designs in a blog post by Ann, I was inspired by a quilled hair piece that she designed for a bride pictured to the left. I knew I wanted this flower sitting on top of my cake.

I asked Ann if I could borrow her idea and she graciously pointed me toward Crimson Poppy, the maker of the beautiful flower on top of the quilled base made by Ann. If you want to see some unbelievably real looking paper flowers, you MUST spend some time perusing the Crimson Poppy catalog. Yes, that bouquet to the right is made of paper!!


I honestly wanted to ditch all of the real flowers in my wedding in favor of Crimson Poppy's beautiful bouquets. But, alas, I was short for time and instead the creative mind behind Crimson Poppy, Jenny Jafek-Jones, rushed me 3 gorgeous white flowers (pictured left) that she made especially for me to use in making my own cake topper. Thank You Jenny, you're wonderful!

My next challenge was creating the quilled base worthy enough of the beautiful flowers. I started with light blue quilling paper that matched my wedding invitations and which I later matched the cake icing to. For a refresher on how to make basic quilled shapes, refer to my older blog post which includes 2 quick videos.

For the base, I started with 5 teardrop shapes which I anchored with 5 loosely coiled circles. I then created "wings" by making loops out of 2 pieces of quilling paper glued at the base. The wings were then anchored by a cats eye shape on either side. For additional dimension and to strengthen the attachment of the wings, I added 3 tightly coiled pieces at the base of each wing. For even more dimension and width, I added 4 Curly Q's in various spots. The finishing touches were to add a cats eye shape to the center top.

Once the quilled base was done, I inserted the stem of the paper flowers which were ultimately what was inserted into the cake. My final cake top I ended up only using the 2 smaller flowers.

The end result was a cake with a quilled touch that was very dear to my heart. The cake topper was meant to lay flat on the cake but the chef couldn't bear to get icing all over the quilling!


Thank you Ann and Jenny for your part in making my cake top a fun and personal touch to the most memorable day in my life. And, yes, the cake was scrumptious! -Kim

Paper Dahlia

Hi Everybody, I am so happy that spring is almost here. It is time to get out and soak up some of that spring sunshine in the garden and plant some flowers. We always have quite a few dahlias in our flower beds every year, and they have become one of my favorites.

Well, actually, if truth be told, I am not the one out in the garden soaking up the sunshine, it is my husband. I am fine with just sitting back and watching him work and then enjoying the fruits of his labors. While he is going that, I will be in my crafting room. He can plant the dahlias, and I will create them out of paper!

Ingredients for the dahlia:

2 different sized circle punches
Double sided cardstock
Adhesive

Step 1

Using the smaller circle punch, punch out the base of the flower. You will be attaching the petals onto the base with adhesive.

Fold the circle in half and then in quarters. This will help you be able to gauge the placement of the petals.

Step 2

Punch out 8 circles with the larger punch. Each of these circles will be a petal for your flower. There are 8 petals.

Fold the circle in half, but only crease 1/2 of the fold. Creasing only 1/2 the fold will make it so you don't have a crease on your petal.

Step 3

Using the crease as your guide, fold over the edges of the circle.

Step 4

Flip the petal over and fold the edge in towards the middle, like making a paper airplane.

You have now created your petal. Repeat this with the remaining 7 circles to create the rest of your petals.

Step 5

Attach your petals onto the base, using the creases on the base to help you space your petals evenly.

Variation:

You can use 2 or 3 petals to create a bud. Cut a slightly smaller circle out of green paper to create another petal to use as the stem base.

Happy Crafting.

Sandra

Perfect Paper Poppies

The 3rd and final flower from our wedding show bouquet is a paper flower that I make frequently, usually as an accent on wrapped gifts. It can be made with any kind of paper and in any size. For this project I used handmade papers from Paper Zone. Because handmades are softer in texture, these are best for making smaller flowers.

For this project you will need at least 2 colors of paper, floral wire, scissors and tape. The Martha Stewart fringe scissors are not necessary to make these flowers, but they make the inner part of the flower so much easier to make and once you use them, you'll want to fringe everything. They are so awesome!

Start with 3 strips of paper. The strip for the inner part of the flower should be about 2 1/4 inches wide and 8 inches long. For the petals, use one strip that is 2 1/4 " wide and 24" long and the second string should be slightly wider: 2 1/2" wide and 24" long. They do not need to be cut perfect because you'll be cutting them down.

For the inner part of the flower, cut along one edge using the fringe scissors. Leave about 1/4" uncut so that you have a base for rolling up the fringed piece. Once this piece has been fringed, roll up tightly along the uncut side and tape.

Next, cut petals out of the other two strips. You can make squares any way you like out of the strips, but for ease, I just fold the strips over and then cut off both edges of folds so that I have a neat little stack of cut squares of all the same size.

I freestyle cut the shape of a petal into these squares. The best part of this flower, is that it doesn't really matter how precise the petal shapes are because all of the pieces will be scrunched together and will pretty much look great no matter what. With these squares you will get about 6 or 7 petals. Just be sure to leave about a half inch "stem" in your petals so that you can assemble the flower with ease.

Cut 6 or 7 petals of a slightly larger size out of the second strip of paper.

To assemble the flower you will start with the inner flower (fringed piece) as your base and the smaller petals. Using the floral wire, TIGHTLY wrap the stem of the petals to the base of the fringe, adding petals evenly around the base. It is very important to wrap the wire tightly so that the petals stay secure. I usually add 1 petal per go around with the wire. Add the larger petals in the same manner until all of your petals are tightly attached at the base.

Next, flip open the flower and let it bloom. Spread the petals with your fingers, opening it up and shaping the petals as you like. Working with paper is great because your can bend and shape the petals into pretty much any direction you like. I sometimes even do a little "gardening" and cut down larger petals if they seem out of place.

I like to change up the color patterns in my flowers when making a bunch so that each flower is unique, but in the same color scheme. And you can use any color!

To complete the bouquet above, I used some leftover of the blue handmade paper to line a square glass dish that I got at the supermarket and ended up with a pretty cute little centerpiece.

I have also seen these flowers used with a string of white Christmas lights, which makes a pretty cute decoration for any party or event. Happy Paper Gardening! --Kim

Paper Carnations

For the Seattle Wedding Show this past weekend we put together a great bouquet of paper flowers for the booth. You may have seen the instructions for the mini-puff ball on Monday's blog post, now we are on to flower #2: the carnation. These are incredibly easy to make and you only need 1 piece of tissue for 4 flowers! Start off with a sheet of tissue paper in the color of your choice. I am using white for my bouquet, but really the color options are endless.

Take your sheet of tissue paper (I started with a 20x30 sheet which is a pretty standard size) and fold it in half over and over until your folded piece is a little larger than the diameter of the flower you want to make. 3" diameter makes for a final flower that is very similar in size to a live carnation.


Trace a 3" circle on the folded tissue. This circle does not have to be exactly 3", I just found a mug that was pretty close to that size and used it as a guide for tracing.


Cut around the edge of the circle being sure to keep the sheets of tissue from shifting too much. You can use a binder clip to hold the sheets together to help avoid the shifting.



When you are done, you should have 32 (if you used a 20x30 sheet) equally sized circles.


Using a small inkpad (I used a ColorBox Cat's Eye Pigment Ink) apply ink to the edges of the tissue circles. Be sure to apply color all the way around the edges.


You will only need about 8 circles for each flower, so go ahead and take 8 circles and poke 2 small holes near the center through all 8 sheets. I find this is easiest to do with this tiny circle hand punch (I also use this punch for pilot holes when I'm putting brads through thicker or multiple sheets of paper). If you don't have the punch, you can poke holes with anything sharp you may have lying around.



Take a pipe cleaner and thread it through both holes leaving 1-2" on the end. Take the shorter end and twist it around the longer piece to secure the stem.



To make the flower, just grab the top layer of tissue and squeeze it together just above the base of the stem taking care not to crease the outer inked edges.


Continue this process with the next layer of tissue,


and then the next until all of the layers of tissue have been squeezed together and you have created your lovely carnation!



If you would like to make your carnation even a little more realistic, try using a pair of edging scissors (I used Fiskars' "majestic" pattern) when you are cutting out your circles.


That simple change followed by all of the same steps turns your final flower into this:


Put them all together and you've created this great little bouquet with just 2 sheets of tissue paper and 8 pipecleaners!


Stay tuned for flower#3 arriving on Friday!

Amanda

Going to The Chapel...

Do you hear the wedding bells ringing? Ok, you might not hear them quite yet...but it's definitely getting to that time when brides are starting to get their fix on wedding planning. This past weekend marked my first dose of wedding for the year with our participation at the Seattle Wedding Show.

For the many years I've been with PZ, I've had a hand in putting our booth together and getting things ready for the show. Every year the show is a little different, but there are always a few things that - year after year - people just go crazy for. For one, this lingerie shower invitation.
Although a little risque, it's always been a huge hit. You can find the template for it right here, and the shopping list here. This invite has inspired lots of bridesmaids to host lingerie showers, and it's made a lot of grooms-to-be blush at our booth. And the bridesmaids always love this bachelorette party invite, so fun and girlie, a perfect invite for a girls' night out:
People also were loving these new little favor boxes, simply assemble the box, fill it with candy and you have an adorable wedding favor:

Another thing that I personally was loving this year was the cupcake booths at the show...and of course the generous samples that were handed to me as I perused the Wedding Show aisles (I think I spent the entire day yesterday fueled by cupcakes!). This year, we also showcased a really beautiful bouquet of paper flowers that people adored:

For weddings, it makes a simple and chic table centerpiece...you can even switch around the papers to match your wedding colors. The bouquet was a collaboration from a few of us at PZ, so today I'm sharing the steps to my part of the bouquet (yes...I used the tissue puff ball idea that I love - see here and here, scaled it down, and created a flower with it!).

Step 1. Gather your supplies - tissue paper, scissors and floral wire (yes, only 3 items!):

Step 2. Cut 6 sheets of tissue to 8.5" x 11" and accordian fold:

Step 3. Wrap the floral wire around the center of the folded piece:

Step 4. Cut a rounded edge from each of the ends:

Step 5. Reveal your flower by peeling away each layer of tissue, one at a time:

Check back on Wednesday to learn how to create the next flower in the bouquet!

--Lauren