How to Make a Cascading Paper Flowers Bouquet

Paper flowers have endless uses! When I set out to write my ebook, The Joy of Paper Flowers I knew I wanted to include a tutorial on how to make a paper flowers bouquet. This tutorial concept and the process can also be applied to arrangements in general! Today, I will share my favorite way to craft a paper blossom bouquet that will have others wondering if it’s real!

How to Make Your Own DIY Paper Flowers Bouquet

Many crafters love to create paper flowers for arrangements or alternative wedding bouquets. While flowers in nature will always be superior there are a few benefits of paper flowers, which are…

• They are long-lasting
• They have no allergens
• They allow you to customize your color palette perfectly
• They enable you to enjoy creating something unique that no one else has
• They save money for events

How to Make Easy Paper Flowers

Taking on a paper flower bouquet craft can seem daunting but making paper flowers doesn’t have to be hard!

Sure, I love an advanced bloom because usually the more detail you add the more beautiful the flower becomes. However, even beginners can craft lovely arrangements with simple paper flower bouquet template designs.

Some of my easiest paper flower tutorials for beginners include…

• Full Bloom Peonies
• Buttercup Blossoms
• Ruby Roses
• Marigolds
• Classic Poppies

If you love all the flowers in my bouquet above get the exact templates in SVG and PDF printables here!

Using a Cricut to Make a Paper Flower Bouquet.

Taking on a paper flower bouquet project can become loads easier with the help of a Cricut machine! All of my templates come with SVG cut files that work with machines like Cricut. After years of teaching others how to craft with their Cricut machine, I have created a guide to using your Cricut for paper flowers here.

Moral of the story? Save your hands and become best friends with a Cricut Maker or Cricut Explore. Not sure which one is best for you? Get my opinion here!

Cutting Your Paper Flower Templates By Hand

I get it, we don’t all own a cutting machine and that is totally okay! That’s the reason all of my templates come with PDF printables so you can break out your trusty scissors and still get the job done. You will just need to give your hands a little extra TLC along the way!

Bouquet Tutorial at a Glance

Making Paper Flowers for a Bouquet or Arrangement

Before you can build your bouquet you need to make your paper flowers! The first thing to decide is what style of paper flower you plan to use. I recommend in general choosing three blooms – a statement bloom, like a rose, a supporting flower like a bud, and a filler flower like a hydrangea or baby’s breath.

In my bouquet, I use my Full Bloom Peony, Classic Peony, Buttercups, and a variety of vines and leaves to add some greenery which instantly elevates the overall look of the flower arrangement.

Paper Flowers Bouquets for Weddings

In the picture tutorial below I will show you how to create a cascading paper flower arrangement as an alternative wedding bouquet. After releasing my second ebook on paper flower crafting two years ago, The Joy of Paper Flowers, I decided to share this tutorial straight from the book! If you want to get your hands on the exact templates I used for my paper flower wedding bouquet plus another 24 flower tutorials then download your copy here.

More Crafts to Love

Supplies for Making a Paper Flowers Bouquet

• Assembled flowers of choice, everybody’s flower count will vary. I used 6 full bloom peonies, 4 classic peonies, and 5 buttercup flowers for this bouquet.
• Greenery and lots of it! I cut out several primary leaves (5 larger ones), a couple of dozen anemone leaves, peony leaves, fern vines, and other sorted vines. Try and cut them out in various shades of greens – the idea is to be creative and have fun with it!
• Ribbon of choice (optional)
• Two thin wood dowels
• Glue gun
• Floral tape
• Half foam ball (I used an 8-inch ball here)
• Green tissue paper
• 18-gauge wire
• Wire clippers
• Cricut scraper edge tool
• Scissors
• May also want the Paper Bloom’s
• Paper Bloom shaping mat and toolset for embossing leaves with vein details.

Bouquet Tips and Tricks

While it is possible to build a bouquet by only arranging stems, I have found that using a half foam ball as my base makes a world of difference in the beauty and success of the overall arrangement. For one it will add stability to your bouquets, which is a must if you’re going to use them in weddings or any other event. You don’t want your cascading paper flowers bouquet to “cascade” down into tiny bits and smithereens! But that’s unlikely if you use a foam ball as a foundation base to help cement the arrangement. 

Moreover, it’s a lot easier to build a bouquet with a foam ball as you experiment and go about adding and moving items here and there in your bouquet, experimenting with different permutations and combinations.

Above all, it would add volume to your bouquet without adding more flowers than necessary. If you’re on a time crunch, it will save you loads of time as you can get the desired effect by making optimum use of all elements, be it flowers, buds, vines, or stems.  You can also get a beautiful looking bouquet without using a foam ball but you’d just need to add more decorations to it. Regardless of the option you choose – with or without a foam ball – feel free to experiment with different styles. You will notice as we build the bouquet that I don’t get overly concerned about having a perfectly round shape. Most bouquets look better when they have a natural and less than perfect look.

If you need some more inspiration, tips, and ideas for your paper flowers bouquet, try searching bridal bouquets on Pinterest and use those images as a guide to play with the composition of your blooms.

Remember, building a bouquet is considered more advanced so be patient with yourself as you learn and practice! Eventually you’ll master the technique but remember to have fun with the art and be willing to try new things along the way.

Love Paper Flowers and Crafting? Download My Best Selling Ebook, The Joy of Paper Flowers.

Your flowers should already be stemmed and ready to go, but you will need to cut some small wire stems for the leaves. I usually cut my wire into thirds to attach my foliage. I’ll show you how on the next page.

To get my flower tutorials click here.

Creating the Base of Your Bouquet

To prep the base of your bouquet, cover the half foam ball in tissue paper. This is important because we don’t want any bits of white peeking through our flowers or leaves. The green color presents a lovely backdrop. But if you plan to create an all-white bouquet or any arrangement with a different color theme, then choose a matching coloring for the tissue paper.

Glue your tissue paper closed on the flat backside of the foam ball. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just secure. You won’t even see this when we finish.

Take the point of your scissors and punch a pilot hole in the center of the ball on the flat backside. Push the scissors in at a 45-degree angle. Wrap the two wood dowels together with corsage tape. Use a bit of glue to hold the corsage tape in place if needed.

Gently push the wood dowels into the hole at a 45-degree angle. Once it’s secure, add some additional glue where the dowel goes into the foam ball at the base.
Note: If you don’t want a cascading bouquet, you can place the dowels in at a more vertical 90-degree angle.

Creating Greenery

Curl your five large primary leaves backward with your dowel or the scraper edge tool. Glue all six of these leaves around the bottom of the bouquet, covering all the tissue paper flowers on that side.

To make the new foliage curl your leaves in various directions. Glue two
leaves back-to-back with one of your small stems in between. Repeat with lots of leaves in different sizes, styles, and color choices.

Stem delicate fern leaves by adding a thin line of glue at the bottom center of the stem and adhering to the wire. After you create a generous amount of greenery, we will add some to the bouquet to start.

Add about a quarter of your greenery to the bouquet before adding flowers. I like to start with a few of the larger leaves closer to the edges of the bouquet.

Adding Your Largest Flowers

Add in your largest flowers first. You want to space them out over the foam ball. In my case, this is the full bloom peony.
If you feel like any flowers will slide out of the foam base, you can add a dot of glue to where the stem and base meet to keep it in place. HOWEVER, I recommend not doing this until you are happy with your placement. Using the foam ball base allows you to move the flowers freely as we build, so take advantage of that.

Don’t be afraid to be free with your spacing. Once you have added in some larger flowers, you can mix in some of the smaller ones—in my case, this would be the classic peony design.

Pay close attention to all the gaps between your flowers and start to fill those spaces with greenery until it becomes difficult to see the tissue paper beneath.

Fill Spaces with Small Flowers, Vines, and Leaves

For a few of the more delicate vines, like the ferns, you can glue some right onto the foam ball and skip the stems altogether. Add more leaves on top of where you glued the fern to create a seamless look.

This particular paper flowers bouquet is a cascading style. I added a couple of the full bloom peonies hanging out and curved down from the front. The cascading effect comes together best when you add vines hanging from the front of the bouquet. These vines you will probably want to stem so you can shape them easier.

Once you have added 80% of your greenery, begin to insert your smaller flowers. For me, I chose the buttercup as an accent flower.

When you finish adding the buttercups, place your remaining greenery in any empty spaces. You will likely end up cutting more than you started with to fill the bouquet—after all, we want it to look luscious!

Finishing Your Bouquet Handle

To complete your bouquet, wrap the wooden dowel stem with a ribbon of your choice. Start at the top and work your way down. If the ribbon slides, you add a bit of glue to get it started. Cut an additional piece of ribbon and tie a bow at the base of the bouquet.

You did it! Enjoy your stunning masterpiece!

I have one final lesson for you. This is genuinely the biggest key to crafting paper flowers. Are you ready?

Have fun and play around!

Flowers are lovely in vases, but there are so many more ways to use them! From gift toppers to hair accessories, garlands, corsages, photo props, and more! So have fun and mix things up—you never know what you might make! Do you have any questions about how to make a paper flowers bouquet? Ask me below!