This Succulent tutorial has been updated for 2020. Try it with crepe paper. I know it isn’t really a flower but it has all the attributes of a flower. And I love my Hens and Chicks. You can see all the paper flower tutorials from this year’s and last year’s Flower Week here.
Everyone seems to be making succulents so I decides to give it a try. These plants have many, many different parts in the download file. They are all the same shape just different sizes.
What you will need:
- cardstock scraps
- liquid glue or glue gun
- Download File
Paper Selection
The succulents can be cut from any color or patterned cardstock but I think green is appropriate. I cut them all from two different shades of green to give it a little color variance, but you can cut the layers from different colors if you want. I recently found a red one at Walmart. The color turned out to be temporary (food coloring in the water I think) but still pretty. Your imagination is your only limit.
This flower could work in felt or fabric. I think it would be great and I will try it in the future.
2020 NOTE: This succulent works wonderful in crepe paper. Crepe paper cuts with the maker and the rotary blade very nicely.
Cutting the Flower
If you want to cut the flower out of felt or fabric and you have a maker use the rotary wheel. If you don’t have a maker, it is a little harder. I tried using fusible material and haven’t made it work yet but I’m still trying. What I did do to get the felt cut was first use the deep cut blade and then attach the felt to contact paper. I used Duck Brand contact paper. Place the felt on your mat with the contact paper down and cut on the felt fused setting. Tape the whole piece down to the mat with painters tape. The cricut cuts the design twice. It cuts it well if it isn’t to intricate of a cut.
To cut from crepe paper you need the rotary blade too, so the maker will work but not an expression machine. The fine point blade cuts on the Air it but it tears very easily. On the maker do not use a new mat. Use an old one that has lost a little of its sticky or a light grip mat. The rotary blade cut much much better than I thought it would. It even managed to cot small holes on another flower.
Assembly
The circle is included as a base. First, curl all the leaves inward except two of the smallest. Roll the two smallest into tubes but don’t glue them. Just set them aside to relax a bit.
Next, starting with the largest 5 leaves glue them to the base circle in a star pattern. Then glue the rest of the leaves in groups of 4 in a staggering pattern moving up. After all the leaves but the last two rolled ones are attached, add the two rolls in the center next to each other to form the center of the plant. And your succulent is done!
The wreath I made last year from the flowers looks like this:
I have made a page with all the links to the paper flower tutorials. The tutorials for the other paper and felt flowers can be found here.