I love the hydrangea. I found several tutorials to make them. They wanted me to glue the flowers to the ends of wires. LOL I went crazy (or more crazy)! Then I thought of this method. Wow is it easier!
I made these with Styrofoam balls. I cut one in half and the other I left round. After I made these I realized I should have painted the ball the same color as my flowers. You should try that too. You can see all the paper flower tutorials from this year’s and last year’s Flower Week here.
What you will need:
- cardstock scraps or crepe paper
- wire for the stem
- straight pins (optional)
- liquid glue or glue gun
- Download File
Paper Selection
Paper Hydrangeas come in all sorts of colors. I like the blue and the purple ones because my Grandma had some outside her front door. Whatever color you choose you should have two or three different shades of that color. Crepe paper versions of the flower parts are very fragile so be careful and cut an extra set of the crepe paper to make sure you get enough.
Cutting the Paper Hydrangea
I couldn’t get the fabric ones to cut out properly.
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. This flower however with its thin cross in the center is difficult to cut. I cut extras to make sure I would have enough.
Cut extra and in varying shades of the little flowers when making them from cardstock too. You won’t need as many though.
Assembling the Paper Hydrangea
The blue one is crepe paper and the purple one is cardstock. They are assembled the same way.
First, spread a little glue around the surface of the ball. Then put a mini flower with four petals in the glue and try not to stick all of the petal. Try to make them stick up a bit. This is difficult at first but later on when you are filling in holes it will be easier. Also, try to vary the color a bit with all the shades. When covering the half ball, leave the back blank. On the full ball, leave a spot on the back to attach leaves and a stem.
After the first layer, go back and try to fill in holes. As I said, it will be easier to give the ball some dimension on this level. Just put dots of glue on the ball for this step. If you need more flowers you will have to cut more. The whole flower should take sixty of them, but that is just an estimate.
