DIY Valentine's Day Wreath with Paper Flowers

In this tutorial, you will learn how to make heart inspired paper flowers for a Valentine’s Day wreath that everyone is sure to love!

 I’m a big fan of freeform art, so in this DIY, there won’t be any templates or rigid instructions. Let the tutorial guide you, but feel free to follow your heart!

GETTING STARTED

• You will need the following materials and tools: One 12x12 sheet of
• Cardstock Warehouse Cardstock Papers 65# in Red Hot, Bubblegum, Pink Lemonade, Sweet Tooth White, Whip Cream and Bright Green
• Sharp scissors
• A hot glue gun and a hot glue stick or two
• A heart shaped foam wreath
• A full roll of wide Valentine’s Day ribbon (size and length of your ribbon depends on the size of the wreath you want to make. I used a 9.8” wreath and 3 yards of 2” ribbon mostly covered it. Any gaps were covered with flowers in the end.)
• Approx. 18-24” of thin Valentine’s Day ribbon

Set the green cardstock aside, until the end. While your hot glue gun is heating up, start by cutting the Red Hot cardstock into four equal parts, then take one of the quarters and divide that into 4 smaller equal parts. Repeat with the remaining pink ad white sheets.

Attach one end of the wide ribbon to the inside of the wreath with hot glue, then begin wrapping the wreath with ribbon all the way around, applying hot glue as needed to keep the ribbon in place. Don’t worry if the ribbon doesn’t make it all the way around. Just make sure that at least one side is fully covered. The other side will be covered with your flowers. 

Cut about 24” of the thin Valentine’s Day ribbon. Decide which side of your wreath you would like to be the back then crisscross the ribbon to make a 2” loop then glue it onto the back of the wreath. Trim the tails so that the ends can be seen in the middle of the wreath.

Next, take one of the larger quarters of paper and fold it in half twice to make a smaller square.

Holding the folded paper with the folds at the bottom cut a heart shape into all layers, making sure not to cut off the creases at the bottom on either side. Personally, I like the look of the flowers better when all of the petals are not exactly the same. However, if you prefer, you can cut out a heart shape and trace the pattern onto the cardstock before cutting. When you open your folds you should have 4 attached heart shaped petals.

Crease each petal down their centers then gently fold over the ends of each heart.

Repeat the above steps on the rest of the larger paper quarters. I slightly taper the size of the heart on the 3^rd quarter, but you can choose to do that or not for any of the flowers. Play around with it to see what you like best!

Glue the 3 layers together; making sure you offset them slightly so that the petals don’t line up exactly. If you chose to make a smaller layer, apply that one last.

Continue making the larger petals with the other colors, decreasing the size of the flower as you move from the darkest color to the lightest.

To make the centers of the flowers, use the same folding and cutting technique on the smaller squares of paper. Crease the centers of the hearts like you did above, but do not fold over the edges. You may find that you don’t need all four layers of petals for the smallest white and cream flowers, so wait to glue the centers for those until you test it out.

Glue the centers into the middles of the larger flowers. Here’s how I designed mine, but you can pick any color combos you want:

Flower Outer Layers - Flower Center

Red Hot Outer - Bubblegum Inner

Bubblegum Outer – Pink Lemonade Inner

Pink Lemonade Outer – Whip Cream Inner

Whip Cream Outer – Sweet Tooth White Inner

Sweet Tooth White Outer – Red Hot Inner

Using the Bright Green cardstock, cut out about 12-18 leaf shapes that are about 1-2 inches long; give or take. I used a folding method and cut rounded diamonds into the crease. Feel free to get creative with your leaves!

Flip your wreath to the front and arrange your leaves around one side. This is a good time to cover up any gaps in the ribbon. Glue them down when you like what you see. Lastly, attach your flowers with glue from largest to smallest starting at the bottom to make sure it balances out. Ta-Da!! Your wreath is now ready for display!

Making your own paper flower wreath? We would love to see! Tag us in your creations on Facebook or Instagram for a chance to be featured on our page! 

Happy Crafting! 

Susan- Shayna Papir