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Easy Crepe Cherry Blossoms; A Quick Tutorial

Detail of cherry blossom

The following is a quick and easy tutorial on creating faux cherry blossoms from crepe paper.  I have followed the rather tedious tutorials on making different crepe flowers before.  Yes, they look lovely…  But with two small children underfoot I will sacrifice a bit of my accurate-compulsive tendencies artistic integrity to make a final arrangement that beautifies my space.  And doesn’t take 30 damn hrs to painstakingly cut tiny petals.  So read on for Quick and Easy Cherry Blossoms:

How to create quick and easy faux cherry blossoms

 

Supplies (For some reason I always want to type ingredients here…)

  • Shown: Glue Gun with glue sticks (don’t run out!)
  • Crepe Paper
  • Scissors
  • Floral wire that matches your branches (this is optional)
  • Not Shown: Branches
  • Spray Paint

Supplies for cherry blossomsStep 1

Take your crepe paper and accordion fold it up.  In this picture I am using two shades of hand dyed crepe paper (You can see the tutorial here).  I make it as thick as I can still cut because I hate cutting.  Cutting, to me, is just a process to get through before the fun begins in crafting.  So thicker = less cuts.

Creating crepe cherry blossoms step 2
I know you are surprised, but I am also one of those people that will die carrying in 4,000 bags of groceries instead of making two trips. So go ahead fold that puppy up thick!

Step 2

Cut out a circle-like shape.  Trust me here, no need to go get a compass.  As long as it ends up kinda rounded you are all good.  I thought about using a circle punch (might have given up trying to find it in the basement) but I like the more organic shape in the end.

Step 2: Cutting Crepe Paper Circles
That lovely variegation is why I go to the trouble to hand dye my crepe paper. But for even quick and easier methods just go buy a couple shades of pink.

Step 3

Here is where the magic happens!  Take your petals to the bedroom… Just Kidding!  The magic I am discussing is what makes crepe paper so nice for creating organic items like flowers.  Pull lightly on the outer edges of the petals.  The crepe will stretch a bit and ruffle; making for a more realistic looking shape.

Step three: ruffling the edges of the petals
And here you can see what I meant by only needs to be kinda circular. Such an amazing cutting job.

Step 4

Take your super-technical-amazing-implement, in this case a pen and wrap the petal around the bottom to make a cup shape.  You may have done the exact same thing on a pencil eraser as a kid to make tissue paper crafts.  I couldn’t find a regular pencil in the house so a pen worked just as well.

Step 4: Forming the shapesStep 5

Technically at this point you are done.  The flowers look pretty just laid on objects.  You can see inspiration by clicking here.  However, to fully assemble a branch you will need, well… A branch.  For mine I used some old maple limbs from the yard that I spray painted white.  Since they didn’t have a lot of small limbs I made extra places to glue the flowers with matching white floral wire.  Again you can see the final result here.  Simply use a tiny dab of hot glue and stick on a flower.

Detail of cherry blossom

Notes:

To make thicker flowers that look fully open try gluing two smaller flowers together.  Also for tight buds twist the petals tightly together around the pen.  I was able to make 40 or so flowers in less than half an hour.  It is always a race to see who will finish first.  Me with the craft or Conlan with his nap, so, I know this one was quick and easy.  I hope you all enjoyed.

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