DIY Giant Dahlia Paper Flowers: How to Make Large Paper Dahlias

Easy Giant Paper Dahlias

+ Printable Template!

DIY Giant Dahlia Paper Flowers

These giant Dahlia Paper Flowers are so incredible beautiful once made. I had fun creating an ombre effect by using different shades of cardstock paper. I won’t lie, they take some patience to put together but the ease of assemble is beginner proof! These giant dahlia flowers are wonderful for creating a flower wall that makes a statement!

This template and tutorial is one that I teach in my book, The Art of Giant Paper Flowers. And because I love you all so much I am gifting the PDF printables and SVG cut files today with my full step by step tutorial! And if you love the giant dahlia flowers be sure to check out my small Classic Dahlia, Ruffle Dahlia and Allie Dahlia designs!

You might be surprise that the large dahlia paper flowers templates are made using just some specially sized circles and squares! Yeah, which means they are super friendly to those who are hand cutting! I provide SVG as well in the freebie below.

Let’s go over supplies. Click each one for links.

Supplies

Glue Gun
65-pound cardstock
Scissorsand/or cutting machine (Cricut Explore Air 2 Machine)
If you are interested in the vines I used in the photo above they can be found here. Long fern vine. Leafy vines.

Find the templates in my free craft template library.

DIY Giant Dahlia Paper Flowers: How to Make Large Paper Dahlias

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Step 1

As I mentioned above the giant dahlia paper flower is made from 2 basic geometric shapes—a large 8 inch circle for the base and several 4.5 inch and 4 inch squares rolled into a cone shape.

Start with cutting out 40 of the 4.5 inch squares and 15 of the 4 inch squares. It’s important to note that the final count of squares used may vary a little for everyone, but this is a good place to start.

Step 2

To form a cone, hold the square with one corner up and overlap the bottom, securing with your hot glue.

Step 3

The 8 inch circle will be your base for gluing the cones to. If you want a variety of sizes of dahlia paper flowers you can do this by increasing or decreasing the circle base and adding or subtracting cones.

If you are aiming the for the ombre effect choose 3-5 shades of one colors to use progressively as you work towards the center.

Step 4

Beginning with your larger cones made from the 4.5 inch sqaures, glue the tips to the outer edge of the circle all the way around. Make sure to leave about a 1/2 inch or so of space between each cone.

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Step 5

Next, continue adding cones. Place the cones in the spaces we left between the first layer of cones we glued down.

Step 6

You would have moved on to your 4 inch cones now. Continue the pattern and keep filling in more of the dahlia cone petals.

Favorite Supply Picks

Step 6

Once you get down to the last half dozen or so of the cones, they will naturally bend at the tip when you glue them down. This is what you want so that the final look is a tight dahlia center. You may need to grab a thin wood dowel or pencil to press the tip down and ensure it makes good contact in the center with the glue.

Once you have glued in your final petals your dahlia should look something like the image above. I have created a full video tutorial below as well for more visual details! How would you use these dahlia paper flowers? Share with me in the comments!

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Share what you’ve been up to by using #DIYwithAbbi. I would love to see your creativity in the works so flaunt your flower power magic! You are a huge source of my inspiration!

My mission is to inspire you to nurture the creative magic inside your soul – bringing you fun, easy to learn DIY projects, and quality template designs. Interested in more flower tutorials?! I’ve created dozens of signature designs for you to enjoy – starting with my best seller, The Art of Giant Paper Flowers, the Giant Flower Library and my shop of endless paper designs and flower templates.

Feeling overwhelmed? Start here with my tried and true Resource List!

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Watch full video here!

Pin for later!

DIY Giant Paper Dahlia Flowers. Flower Wall Backdrop.

Comments

Launa says

January 21, 2018 at 8:46 am

How do you/ what do you use to hang them onto the wall?

- Abbi says
  
  January 21, 2018 at 11:27 am
  
  You can use scotch mounting tape or a glue a wire loop to the back to hang from a hook or nail. 🙂
  
- San says
  
  February 18, 2019 at 3:13 pm
  
  I take a hole punch/2 holes. I ran wire threw and hang
  
Ramya says

January 31, 2018 at 5:36 pm

Can we use colored paper which we print on? 80gsm?

- Abbi says
  
  February 2, 2018 at 11:21 am
  
  I use 65 pound weighted which is 76 grams, so 80 grams should be fine. 🙂
  
Kristi says

May 20, 2018 at 2:31 pm

Loving this tutorial and cannot wait to make some giant dahlias for baby girl’s nursery! I am just wondering (and maybe I missed it somewhere, in which case I apologize) roughly what size is the finished flower? Thank you!

- Abbi says
  
  May 20, 2018 at 8:10 pm
  
  The biggest one measures about 14-15 inches across. 🙂 Enjoy making them for your littles nursery!
  
Denise Gunther says

April 22, 2019 at 7:49 am

How do you hang them afterwards?

- Abbi says
  
  April 22, 2019 at 10:03 am
  
  Hi Denise,
  Here is a post on all the ways to hang paper flowers! https://www.abbikirstencollections.com/2018/04/hang-paper-flowers.html
  
Nicole says

April 7, 2020 at 5:22 pm

If I wanted to bring this down to roughly a 9″ finished flower, how would i change my sizes?

- Abbi says
  
  April 8, 2020 at 4:51 pm
  
  I would make the base about 7-8 inches and then you can use just the smaller squares for the petal cones. 🙂
  
Erica says

April 8, 2020 at 4:22 pm

Maybe I looked over it but what was the 5 inch circle for?

- Abbi says
  
  April 8, 2020 at 4:52 pm
  
  The 5-inch circle is optional for downsizing the dahlia flower. 🙂

DIY Giant Dahlia Paper Flowers- How to make a flower wall.