I have seen these beautiful paper roses all over Pinterest and wedding blogs alike, but I am now ecstatic to get to share an actual, step-by-step tutorial on how to make these gorgeous paper flowers!!
These little beauties could make for one amazing, offbeat DIY bouquet [a similar DIY paper flower bouquet here], or just use them a beautiful centerpiece idea for a party. Regardless, these flowers rock my socks & I cannot wait to find an excuse to make some [more than likely from pages of a Harry Potter book, of course]. A special thanks to Maryland wedding photographer, Photography by Susie, for making & sharing this awesome DIY tutorial with us!
DIY Tutorial: How to Make Paper Roses from Book Pages
Materials:
- A Book
- Paper cutter and/or scissors and ruler (we like this Portable Scrapbooking Trimmer
 )
- Glue [not school glue, something stronger like a Surebonder Glue Gun
 & hot glue]
- Pencil
- Toothpick
- Twine like this Heavy Duty Jute Twine
 or something to make the stem
Tutorial Instructions:
Step 1. Start by cutting the paper into 4 inch squares.Unfortunately, I didn’t have a paper cutter or a ruler [yes, I couldn’t find one anywhere in the house. :P], so I just guessed at the measurements. The important thing though, is to cut three pieces of paper the same size. [I tried for a 4″ piece, and I think I got pretty close.]
Step 2. After you cut three pieces the same size, you’ll fold them all the way I did below. First you fold them in half like this…
Step 3. Then, you fold them again, and again, so they’re a nice little triangle.
Click inside to see the rest of our DIY Paper Flower Tutorial!
Step 4. Take your pencil, and draw a pattern on there, so you’ll cut the top rounded, and then cut the tip off, as well.  Use this one as a pattern for your other two pieces.
You should have three pieces cut out, looking like this when you unfold them.
Step 5. The next step is to cut one petal out of one, two petals out of the next one, and three petals out of the next. You should then have something that looks like this…
Step 6. Take some glue, and put it on one petal, then you’ll take the next side and overlap petals to make it stick.
You will glue all the pieces, except for two: the piece with one petal, and the piece with two.
Step 7. Here is where the toothpick comes into play. Take the toothpick and use it to curl the petals after you’ve glued them. You’ll also curl the pieces with just one and two petals, and you should end up with the following pieces…[look at the next photo down….]
Step 8. Now you’ll assemble the rose. The piece with 5 petals will go inside the piece with 6 petals, and so on and so forth. To assemble, put glue on the outside of the smaller piece, and place it inside the rose. Alternate the petals, so your petals aren’t right on top of each other. Once you have all the pieces in the rose, let it dry for a bit before you put the twine in for the stem. For the twine, I cut a piece [this had wire in it as well], then just bent the top over so it wouldn’t slide all the way through, slid it through the center of the rose, and it stayed quite nicely.
Step 9. Once you get the hang of making these, it doesn’t take long. Like, for instance, this bouquet only took me all day. [Just kidding! It probably took me 10 min per flower]. If I would have a paper cutter it would take even less time…
Ta-da!!!!!! PLEASE Let us know if you use this tutorial to make a bouquet for your wedding! We would love to share it here. Also, a special thanks again to the very awesome Susie of Photography by Susie for sharing her paper rose tutorial & images with us!!!
43 comments
holy crap those are so cool! Not just for weddings, but so nice for a house too, instead of spending money on real bouquets. Very creative!
Hey, thanks for creating a paper rose tutorial that is relatively simple and doesn’t cost money (to buy special templates and stuff)! I’ve been looking for one for ages.
Using these in my wedding in October. I’ve started makng them already. Will have pics in October!
Thank you so much for posting this! I wanted something other than real flowers for my wedding and did a search on Pinterest, and found your instructions. They are very simple to follow and the finished flower looks awesome! I made 3 in about 40 mins…the longest part is cutting for me lol. Again, thank you!
glad you found our tutorial useful!! :)
A friend and I started making these last night, and this tutorial is just awesome! I’m having a science-and-literature themed wedding and cannot wait to sprinkle these around on our tables (and bundled together at the ends of aisles for the ceremony). Thanks so much for sharing!
Megan – so happy you found this useful! Please share a picture of the completed results if you’d like! Bree[at]capitolromance[.]com !
These are amazing! I had been asked to do the decorations for the annual Book and Thimble dinner and these are perfect! Quick and easy to make, thank goodness, as I will be making around 150 of them. Thank you for the wonderful tutorial. Great for those of us who REALLY need good pictures to follow a tutorial.
Most excellent tutorial, exactly what I was looking for!
I work at a library and am in charge of disposing of severely damaged books. A co-worker named Rose is retiring and I was trying to think of a unique gift for her. Came across this great site and am making a boquet from discarded books. Rose has a little dog named Peanuts so I will put some peanuts in a clear vase and put the roses in it. Thank you so much for an easy and clear tutorial that even a craft-challenged person can follow through to a successful result!
Wow awesom…..!!! That was d easiest and d best…. Muuahh!!!;)
What am I doing wrong? Every time I try to cut the petal design, I keep getting just a bunch of little bits of paper instead of the flower with the whole in the middle like you have. I need some more clear, strict directions!
Kristie – you are more than likely cutting the petal out on the wrong edge of the folded paper. Make sure you are cutting, starting on the edge that has the fold.
Hi, I don’t know if anyone responded to you but I kept having the same issue at the start. I realized it was because I was only folding the paper twice instead of three times. Also make sure that you draw you pattern with the closed folded edge (no open bits) as the starting point for the pencil. Hope this helps :)
Thank you so much for posting this tutorial. I found it while searching for ideas to make a fabric bouquet for my daughter’s wedding. I thought these roses were so pretty and such a great idea; I used old sheet music (love songs, of course) which had belonged to my grandmother to make the roses. They fit beautifully among the satin, lace and burlap. I am currently making more to include in bouquets for my great niece and my brother’s fiancee. It is a special way for me to include ‘family’ into the bouquets for the bride’s special day.
I would love to see photos– sounds amazing!
I would love to see photos– sounds amazing!
In addition, is there a type of twine to use for the stem you recommend with wire in them? The suggested twine would not permit the flowers to stand in a vase.
Would love to see sample centerpieces with the flowers.
LOVE IT!
Thank you,
Jessica
I’ve just got to say – I found this tutorial when I was looking for alternative options for flowers for my wedding a year ago. I then spent the next year slowly making dozens and dozens of these flowers. And they came out AMAZING – I used pages of a second hand copy of Harry Potter (because I’m a geek) but the one thing that EVERY, single person at the wedding mentioned was the flowers. I have had so many people ask me how I did them that I just keep sending them the link to this page. Honestly, they came out better than I could have expected and they looked incredible!
Thank you Nicola! So happy the tutorial helped you and thanks for sharing. So happy to hear they turned out to be such a gorgeous addition to your wedding :)
I am using this tutorial with comic books for my superhero themed wedding on Oct 23. Thank you so much for making an easy to follow tutorial!! I will try to figure out how to post pics of the bouquets once they are done!
I’d love to see that!!! Comic book pages sounds AWESOME.
Thank you so much! I found at least four different tutorials and tried two of them before I came across your site. The others were just too complicated and I was getting so frustrated. This was so simple and easy! I think I’ll actually have fun making them now!!
Hello, these are beautiful! Can you tell us how to make the stem? I want to make my bridal bouquet with these. :)
Thanks!
I made my wedding bouquet based on this template. If i could figure out how to attach a picture, I would. We added jewel centers to the roses (bought ofline). They were VERY fragile, but everyone said how gorgeous it was. We used pages from the first book my husband ever read to me, and made them together. It was really special. Thank you so much for the excellent guide.
feel free to email us a picture to share!!! :) glad the tutorial helped!
AHH! I love these! Like many others that have posted on here, I’ve been looking for instructions that were simple and easy to follow. I’m doing these for all of my girls bouquets for the wedding. Can you tell me exactly what kind of twine you used for the stems?
Thank you!!
How could I incorporate colour into these? Specifically lavender and mint. I’ve tried dying pages (they turned out blue), I’ve also tried all different methods of making ribbon roses and had them fall to pieces in my hands.
Please please post or send more pictures of how to do the center three layers (1, 2, and 3 petals). I don’t think I’m doing them correctly, and my roses keep turning out wonky. It’s been a thorn (ha) in my side. I need to do as many as I can – probably a few hundred – so please respond as quickly as possible. Thank you!
Jolie – check our updated DIY Roses from Paper tutorial (featuring water color paper) and a lot more pictures: http://www.capitolromance.com/2014/04/30/diy-tutorial-how-to-make-a-water-color-paper-rose/
Thank you so much!
This has saved me! I made my bouquet already and am working on the ones for my bridesmaids. Thank you!!!
Had bookmarked this page a while back to come back to and make as home decorations but none of the images appear to be available anymore :( Please could you re-upload them?
Hi Nia- sorry about that. Post has been updated!
Thank you!
Loved using this. Used watercolors on the paper to make them the color I wanted, and it turned out great!
This is very thoughtful! Will be back to go over this again!
Thanks!
Carolina