How To: Make Paper Flowers from Old Books

Make flowers that don't fade and also expresses your love of books!

What You'll Need

• Pages from a book that you don't mind cutting up
• Button
• Needle and thread
• Glue gun
• Pencil

Optional:

• Tissue or colored paper
• Safety pin
• Wooden skewer or chopstick

Step 1 Make Flower Outlines

Find an outline of a flower that matches what you want your flower to look like. Search for one online or draw one yourself. Remember to keep it simple—a silhouette is best.

Step 2 Cut Out Book Page Flowers

Tear out pages from the book. The pages can be as big or as small as you want your flower to be. Using the flower outlines you made in Step 1, trace the image of the flower onto the book page with your pencil. Trace three flowers and then cut them out.

You can also choose to use tissue or colored paper for one of your three flowers.

Step 3 Trim Flowers

Trim two of your flowers so they are slightly smaller. One of your two book page flowers should be the largest, then your colored paper flower should be slightly smaller, then your other book page flower should be slightly smaller than that.

Step 4 Crumple Flowers

Crumple your flowers. This might seem crazy, since you just cut them out so carefully, but this makes them look more dynamic in the end.

Step 5 Add the Button Pistil

Arrange your flowers, one on top of the other, how you want them to look. If you've chosen to make one flower of tissue paper, make sure that flower is set between the two book page flowers. Offset them a little, so you can see each individual flower. Sew your button directly into the center of your flower, just as you would sew a button onto a shirt.

If you don't know how to sew, you can use glue for this stage. Use a glue stick to attach the flowers to each other, only gluing in the center, not around the edges. Use your glue gun to attach the button to the smallest flower.

Step 6 Done!

Your flower is complete! You can now choose to keep it as is or turn it into a brooch. You can also make more and create a bouquet.

To Make a Paper Flower Brooch

Simply use your glue gun and attach the safety pin to the back of the flower. If you don't have a glue gun, you can also use needle and thread and sew the pin on. If you do so, make sure you are only sewing through the bottom flower, not all three.

To Make a Bouquet

Use wooden skewers or wooden chopsticks as stems. Glue to the back of the flowers. Place in a vase and enjoy flowers that last forever!