Roses of any colour you want.

Lately I have been immersed in a lot of DIY craft, some of which can be done easily while watching Leverage, and others so tedious that they require sweat blood. And in the light of that my negligence toward this blog should be pardoned.

I can't wait to share all that I have made, but that is not what this entry is about.

For now, I'm going to share what I am going to attempt making with the limited paper choices we have in Karachi. For instance, this requires double sided crepe paper, I need to find an alternative because it is not available here to the best of my knowledge. Kite paper, perhaps? But that won't curl or stretch. Hmm. Anyway, I'll keep you guys posted on what material achieved the best result.

Until then, here's how to make crepe paper roses by Katy Elliot:

  Tools and MaterialsLarge flower template
Double-sided crepe paper
Smooth-sided pencil
Paper-covered floral wire
Floral tape
White craft glue

Large Flower How-To1. Enlarge and print template. Use the template to trace and cut five teardrop-shaped petals and 15 heart-shaped petals from double-sided crepe paper.

2. To shape petals, cup in center; wrap left and right top edges around a pencil to curl.

3. Make a stem by wrapping three paper-covered wires together with floral tape.

4. Start building flowers by first placing teardrop petals around the stem and securing with floral tape. Place heart petals around the "bud" you have created and secure with more floral tape.

5. Trace and cut the calyx shape from green crepe paper. Wrap calyx around bottom of rose and glue in place.

6. Trace and cut out three leaf shapes from green crepe paper. Draw a bead of glue down the center of each leaf, place a paper-covered wire down, and pinch the crepe paper together over the paper-covered wire "vein" to hide it.

7. Attach the leaves to the stem by wrapping in floral tape.

8. Wrap stem with strips of green crepe paper to cover floral tape; glue in place.