This Paper Cactus Flower was one of the first flowers I tried in crepe paper. It turned out so well I made all the other flowers I could from crepe paper. I even made two different cacti for them to decorate. The pics are at the end of this tutorial. You can see all the paper flower tutorials from this year’s and last year’s Flower Week here.
These paper flowers have 5 different parts for the flower in the download file. There are also many parts for the cacti. You can make either cacti you want (or both). The files make 3 cactus flowers.
The crepe paper comes in sheets or you can cut them from the rolls used for party streamers. The sheets are made especially for flower making and I found them in the clearance bin at JoAnn’s.
What you will need:
- cardstock scraps , felt or crepe paper
- liquid glue or glue gun
- Tweezers or a quilling tool
- Scissors
- Download File
Paper Selection
Paper Cactus flowers look best in green but be creative and try some patterns. For these I used crepe paper and regular cardstock. I haven’t tried fabric yet so I don’t know how that would work but it should.
Cutting the Paper Cactus Flower
If you want to cut the flower out of felt or fabric and you have a maker use the rotary wheel. I haven’t tried this for this flower but it should work.
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 and this flower isn’t intricate.
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.
If you want to cut more paper cactus flowers all at once just duplicate the flower however many times you want. You can move the flower parts around to minimize waste paper and cutting time.
Watch my video for cutting Multiple colors on one mat
Assembling the Paper Cactus Flower
Assembling the Cacti for the Paper Cactus Flowers
The barrel cactus is assembled flat. With scissors cut slits in the pieces where you want to attach the next piece. Look at the example below to see how I did it. You can make any arrangement you want. Then attach the flowers to the top most pieces or where ever you want when you are done.
The other cactus is 3 dimensional and stands up. To make it first re-crease all the folds on the green pieces. Glue the pink pieces to the back of the green pieces where the arms match. Then glue the green pieces in an X shape putting pink pieces between each of the green pieces.. You may have to cut the bottom level to stand up the cactus. Attach the flowers to the ends of the arms.
And your paper cactus flower and cacti are finished. You can see all the paper flower tutorials from this year’s and last year’s Flower Week here.
