Concertina Flower

 

Create some pretty paper flowers either as decorations or a greeting card

These are versatile little flowers that can be used to decorate many items. They can be made in any colour and you can vary the size too. You can buy special dies to make these flowers that cut and score at the same time, but these instructions show how you can make them with a scoring blade and a guillotine or a score board.

I made three sizes of flowers. My largest ones are about 11 cm in diameter, the middle sized ones are about 8 cm in diameter and the smallest one was about 6 cm in diameter.  The above photo shows two largest flowers and one medium sized.  I used the smallest one to make a greeting card which you can see at the bottom of this blog.

Follow the below link to find out how these flowers were made

You will need

• 12 x 12 Double sided patterned paper or thin card (I used paper from Frosted Floral designer paper by Stampin Up)
• Score board with inch markings or a guillotine with scoring blade
• Hot glue gun
• Circular punches or die measuring 1 3/8 inch and 1 1/8 inch (Mine had scalloped edges and came from Stampin Up)
• Small flower punch or die measuring about 2 cm (Mine was Small Bloom Punch by Stampin Up)
• Small buttons or gems you can decorate the front of the flowers with

1. To make the larger flower cut two lots of paper/card measuring 2 inches by 12 inches (The medium flower was made with 2 lots of 1 . 5 inches by 12 inch strips of card/paper and the small one for the card was made with 1 strip of 1 inch by 12 inch paper/card)


2. Score each strip on the front side of the paper strip at the half inch intervals - ie 0 . 5 inch, 1 .5 inch, 2 . 5 inch etc (The medium and large flowers were both scored at the same intervals. The smallest flower was scored on the first side at the quarter and three quarter inch intervals)

   

   Large and medium sized flowers first side needs scoring at the half inch intervals

   
   

   

   Small flower first side needs scoring at the 1/4 and 3/4 inch intervals

   
   


3. Turn the strip over and score at the inch intervals - ie 1 inch, 2 inch, 3 inch etc (The medium and large flowers were both scored at the same intervals. The smallest flower was scored on the half and whole inch intervals)

   

   Large and medium sized flowers second side needs scoring at the inch intervals
   
   

   
   

   

   Small flower second side needs scoring at the half and full inch intervals

   
   


4. Fold along the score lines (alternate between valley and mountain fold) to concertina the paper
   
   
   


5. The two strips for the largest flower need gluing together to form a long strip. Put glue on the last two folded sections of one strip and lay the first two folded sections of the second strip ontop.  (The medium flower also has two strips and needs to be glued together in the same way.  The smallest flower only has one strip)
   
   
   


6. The strips of concertina paper now need to be glued together to form a hoop. Put glue on the first two folded sections and join with the last two folded sections
   
   
   


7. If you push the top of the tube together and spray out the bottom of the tube the flower will lay flat in a circle
   
   
   
   
   
   


8. Punch a large circle and a small circle from matching or coordinating paper/card (for the small flower, I punched a flower instead of a small circle as I thought the circle would be too large)
   
   
   


9. Use the hot glue gun to put glue on the back of the larger circle and glue it centrally on the back of the concertina flower to hold the concertina together. You will need to hold it whilst the glue dries for a short while.
   
   
   


10. Put some hot glue on the back of the small circle and glue centrally to the front of the concertina flower - again, hold it whilst it dries (I didn't glue a circle to the front of the smallest flower but used a flower punched from card instead)
    
    
    
    
    
    


11. Decorate the circle on the front of the flowers with buttons, gems or other punched flowers
    
    
    


12. For the hanging decorations, I just glued a piece of string to the back of each flower. The smallest one, I used for a card, I just glued it to the front of a DL card, put a happy birthday peel off as the flower stem and punched two leaves from matching card to decorate the front
    
    
    

They can be used to decorate name place settings, gift bags, wrapped parcels and note books to name a few things. Glue a stick to the bottom of each flower, they could then be put in a vase to make a floral display.