Paper Roses – a delicate paper craft to light up your home

I’ve been dreaming again. Of weekends that begin outdoors on a Friday evening when Mr M comes home from his long working week and don’t end until the last bit of sunlight has faded on Sunday. Of sipping ice cold blush wine with crushed ice and preparing easy barbeques and simple suppers of salads created from leaves grown in my kitchen garden. Dreams of spending every waking moment outside in the sunshine gardening all day long. And picking a few early scented roses, mixing them with frothy cow parsley and forget-me-nots in simple jam jars to dress an outside table. In real life and at the time of making this craft, I had turned the heating back on, lit the wood burner and put my floaty skirts away. And on a wet and grey spring afternoon, in the absence of pretty roses from my garden, I decided to make my own floral delight. Paper roses, this is a craft I’ve had on my mind for quite sometime now…

So I got that old book out, you remember, the one I used here which Mr M found in a skip and was a little too mouldy even for my vintage decor. I turned to Pinterest and this tutorial and I knew exactly how I would display the paper flowers and roses in my home. If I may add a little to the tutorial: Do you remember ever drawing snail shells as a child? If you do, the template you create on your chosen paper is a little like that. And since you begin rolling your paper flowers from the outer edge of the snail shell, you may want to make that first spiral narrower than where you finish drawing the snail shell, in the centre. The central piece of the shell is infact where you dollop your hot glue and where you attach your spiral of paper to form the paper flower. Now if I have complicated matters, my apologies. I spent a frustrating few attempts getting this wrong resulting in a rose with a big centre and tiny petals on its outer most side. Looked odd to say the least. Not at all rose like. And I also have to admit to a lack of patience with the hot glue gun and my aim too. I found this to be one of those crafts where a third hand may have been useful. Mr M was no where to be found. The next four photos show what I’m trying to say…

Then I found a beautiful creamy paper in my stash and a pretty sugar pink and I kept on twirling until I had these…

There are many beautiful over grown branches and little trees popping up in obscure places in our untamed front garden. Mr M chops anything he feels is in the way and I use what I can when faffing with flowers for the home. For this project I turned to my beautiful twisted hazel tree to provide a sturdy base. This wonderful surprise was discovered very soon after we moved in and Belle sits perfectly along side it now. The twisted branches are growing into Belle’s veranda and look delightful at night with tea lights twinkling.

So sturdy base selected, I began positioning the roses until I was happy with the look.

Our pretty sitting room continues to challenge me to find new and innovative ways to light up the dark space. I don’t always favour the bright table lamps we have, especially as we move towards longer summer evenings. Sometimes we just need the subtle twinkle of pretty fairy lights oh and paper flowers and roses of course.

I know it wont be too long before the summer offers real and beautiful flowers from my garden. I’m excited to reap the rewards of our new peony plants with their fragile paper like petals and welcome back beautiful hydrangea, hopefully more established this year. Together with sweet smelling lavender and bright coloured wildflowers, we have the makings of endless jugs and vases to brighten corners of our home. For now though, I shall enjoy these simple and delicate paper flowers. Have a very happy week everyone x