How to Make Perfect Paper Daisies
The headline will read "Beautiful Centerpieces from $5 to $500," said the magazine's style editor to me, "and we want you to design the $5 model for our readers." Now designing expensive projects is easy; exquisite papers, elaborate designs, and a lot of time (all of which translates into a lot of money) are all you need to create something beautiful. Pulling off the same effect with only five bucks and a few simple steps is many times harder. The challenge was right up my alley.
Since the price point would be modest, I decided to try my hand at making some paper daisies, those most humble of field flowers. The materials list was extremely modest:
1. Paper (I used pieces from my paper scraps pile: textured and smooth pink and white-on-white, as well as long, narrow, strips for the flower centers)
2. Hot glue gun with glue sticks
3. A craft knife
4. A circle template (I used an upside-down drinking glass)
5. Floral wire and green floral tape for making the daisy stems
I loved the results so much I kept at it, coming up with a handful of options for the editor to choose from. In the end, the magazine decided to print a number of my designs in their story. Unfortunately, this one-one of my favorites-never made it into those pages but I thought I'd share it with you here. If the response to this is good, I'll feature, in an upcoming post, one of the designs that actually made it into print. They were really
gorgeous so, please let me know if you want to see more of this sort of thing.
Perfect Paper Daisies
Begin with a circle of paper cut to the overall dimension you want your daisies to be. I used an inverted water glass with a 3-inch mouth as my cutting template. Cut two (2) circles for EACH bloom you intend to make.
A drinking glass provided the cutting template. Pick a size circle that best suits your purposes. Two-inch circles will make the flowers look more precious while five-inch circles will add impact. (Be sure your paper is stiff enough to maintain its shape if you opt for making the larger blossoms.)
