Instructions
STEP 1: GET MY FREE PAPER FLOWER BOUQUET DESIGN FILES
First, download my Paper Flower Bouquet SVG/DXF/PDF files from my free resource library. It's Design #488. I’ve included a file for the vase, five separate files for each of the flowers I used, and one file for the leaves.
I’m going to show you how to make the paper vase and fill it with a few different types and sizes of paper flowers, including some broad petal dahlias, gerbera daisies, carnations, and gardenias.
Upload your chosen SVG files to Cricut Design Space.
TIP: If you're not sure how to upload an SVG cut file to Cricut Design Space, watch this helpful video training series I made. If you're on an iPhone or iPad, here's how to download and upload SVG files to the Cricut Design Space app.
STEP 2: PREPARE AND CUT YOUR DESIGNS
Prepare and Cut the Vase
Add the vase file to your Canvas. You can zoom out to see all of the design by clicking on the minus (-) sign on the lower left.
This is what my Paper Flower Bouquet vase design looks like on my Canvas.
The design is set up to make one vase approximately 6” wide and tall. The large yellow rectangle is the inner part of the vase, which we'll attach to the two blue circular pieces for the top and bottom to make a cylinder shape. The blue rectangle is the outer part of the vase, which we’ll squish down to create a rounded shape with slits that will show the inner yellow vase. The five small yellow pieces are for the outer ribbon and bow.
The opening at the top of the assembled vase is the perfect size for the 4” x 2” floral foam hemisphere from my materials list. If you’re using the same foam hemisphere, I don’t recommend resizing the designs. If you’re using a different-sized foam hemisphere, you can measure its diameter and resize your vase accordingly. The diameter of the foam hemisphere I used is about 3.5”.
If your diameter is larger or smaller than that, enlarge or reduce the design until the inner circle of each of the blue circular pieces (the section without the tabs) is about the same size as your foam hemisphere's base. Make sure to select everything when resizing and keep the lock icon closed to maintain the proportions.
You may need to resize the flower designs to fit your new vase size also.
If you want to change the color of any of the elements, you can do that now. Just click the “Ungroup” button at the top of the Layers Panel (the two stacked squares on the very left) and select the object you want to change. Then select the color swatch box next to “Operation” in the top menu, and click on a new swatch to change the color.
The vase design is now ready to cut! Check that the right machine is listed in the top right corner, then click "Make It.”
If prompted, click “On Mat,” “12 in x 12 in,” and “Confirm.”
You should see two mats on your Prepare screen. If everything looks good, click “Continue” in the bottom right.
On the Make screen, select your material settings. We can use the "Medium Cardstock - 80 lb (216 gsm)” setting for all of our vase pieces. Change the Pressure to "More" for cleaner cuts.
TIP: If you’re using the same cardstock for all your mats and the “Remember material settings” box is available, check it to save time between cuts!
Place your first mat's cardstock face up on your green StandardGrip machine mat and use a brayer to make sure it's fully adhered. Check that your Fine-Point Blade is clean and in Clamp B. Then, load the mat into the machine and press the flashing button to begin cutting.
When the cut is finished, unload the mat, flip it over, and roll it back to release the cardstock. This helps prevent the material from curling and ripping.
Follow the steps above to cut and remove your remaining pieces from the mat.
Here's what my cut pieces for the paper flower vase look like.
Prepare and Cut the Flowers
If you’re making paper flowers, add your chosen flower and greenery files to your Canvas. You can zoom out to see all of the designs by clicking on the minus (-) sign on the lower left.
This is what my paper dahlia, Gerbera daisy, small daisy, gardenia, carnation, and leaf designs look like on my Canvas.
I’ve sized all the flower and leaf designs in the Paper Flower Bouquet folder to perfectly fit the vase and foam hemisphere. The assembled dahlias, large Gerbera daisies, carnations, and gardenias are approximately 3” wide. The small daisies are approximately 1” wide.
For my bouquet, I made two yellow dahlias (using two shades of yellow), two blue dahlias (using two shades of blue), two yellow Gerbera daisies (using two shades of yellow), three blue Gerbera daisies (using two shades of blue), four white gardenias, two yellow carnations, two white carnations, approximately 18 small white daisies, and approximately 20 leaves (10 of each style).
If you want to change the size or color of any of your flowers, do that before clicking “Make It” by following the steps above in the “Prepare and Cut the Vase” section.
Once your flower designs are ready to cut, check that the right machine is listed in the top right corner, then click "Make It.”
If prompted, click “On Mat,” “12 in x 12 in,” and “Confirm.”
The number of mats on your Prepare screen will depend on the number, color, and size of flowers you’re making. If you’re using 8.5” x 11” paper for any of your pieces, you’ll need to change the Material Size for those mats from “12 in x 12 in” to “8.5 in x 11 in (Letter).” Once you’ve changed the size of your first mat, the remaining mats of the same color will change to match so you don’t have to change each one individually.
Check to make sure nothing is missing. If everything looks good, select your first mat again and click “Continue” in the bottom right.
On the Make screen, select your material settings. The "Cardstock (for intricate cuts)” setting works well for the intricate flower pieces. To find it, click "Browse All Materials" and type "Intricate" in the search bar. Then select the result, click "Done," and leave the Pressure at "Default."
TIP: If you’re using the same cardstock for all your mats and the “Remember material settings” box is available, check it to save time between cuts!
Place your first mat's cardstock face up on your green StandardGrip machine mat and use a brayer to make sure it's fully adhered. Check that your Fine-Point Blade is clean and in Clamp B. Then, load the mat into the machine and press the flashing button to begin cutting.
When the cut is finished, unload the mat, flip it over, and roll it back to release the cardstock. This helps prevent the material from curling and ripping. Move slowly and use a spatula to carefully remove the intricate pieces from the mat.
Repeat the same steps for the rest of your mats. The mats with intricate details will take longer to cut. You can use your scraper tool to remove any bits of paper left on your mat after cutting the intricate layers.
Here's what my cut pieces for the paper flowers and leaves look like.
STEP 3: ASSEMBLE THE PAPER FLOWER BOUQUET
Assemble the Vase
Find the large rectangular piece (the one without slits) and the two circular pieces. These will form the cylinder-shaped inner vase.
Gently roll the rectangular piece from a short edge, making a tube with the cardstock. This will encourage it to curve and make it easier to attach to the top and bottom circles. If you’re using paper with a different color or pattern on each side, make sure to roll it so the side you want showing is on the outside.
Take one of the circular pieces and fold the tabs at 90-degree angles where their corners meet. Do the same thing with the other circular piece. If you’re using paper with a different color or pattern on each side, make sure to fold the tabs away from the side you want showing.
Now we can glue the top and bottom circles to the curved side piece. Apply glue to a single tab on one of the circles and then press the long edge of the rectangular side piece against it. The top edge of the side should be flush with the circle.
Wait about fifteen seconds for the glue to dry. It doesn’t matter which part of the side piece you attach first, but I started at one end and worked my way toward the other end.
It’s much easier to glue the top and bottom of the cylinder at the same time. To do this, take your other circle and apply glue to a single tab. Press the long edge on the opposite side of the rectangle piece against it.
NOTE: If you will be adding flowers with full-length stems to your finished vase, you can leave the top circle off so you have an open vase.
Both circles should now be attached to the side piece at opposite ends. Before gluing the rest of the tabs in place, make sure the correct side of your paper is facing outward on each piece.
Continue gluing the tabs to the side piece one at a time, waiting for the glue to dry completely between each one. Doing this part slowly will encourage the paper to curve instead of fold or bend.
It helps to alternate between the top and bottom pieces, gluing the tabs for each circle at the same pace. As you go, check periodically to make sure the side of your vase isn’t too far above or below the top and bottom pieces.
Once you’ve attached the last tabs, you’ll notice that the two ends of your side piece overlap each other slightly. You can close up your cylinder by applying a thin line of glue along the edge in this area. Gently run your finger along the overlapped pieces to make sure they adhere well.
The inner vase is complete! Now let’s attach the outer vase piece to it.
Grab the large rectangular piece with slits. You’ll notice that the slits don’t go all the way to the edges of the cardstock. The gap is larger at one end. This won’t matter if your vase is closed at both ends. If you have an open vase, make sure you attach the edge with the larger gap at the open end of the vase. That’s the area where we’ll attach the ribbon and bow later, so it needs to be at the top.
We’ll attach the bottom of the outer vase first. Starting at one end, apply a thin line of glue -- about an inch or two long -- to the inside of the rectangle piece at the end with the shorter gap.
Press it against the assembled inner vase along the bottom. I attached mine right next to the seam on the cylinder so both of my seams would be in the same area.
Before the glue dries, wrap the rest of the outer piece around the cylinder, making sure the bottom edge completely aligns with the bottom of the cylinder. If it’s crooked at all, adjust it now. Once you have the outer piece positioned correctly, hold the glued section in place until it dries -- about fifteen seconds.
Continue attaching the rest of the bottom edge, adding glue in small sections at a time. Make sure the glue is completely dry before attaching the next section, and keep checking that the bottom edges are aligned as you go.
When you reach the end, add a small line of glue to the area where the two edges overlap. Make sure you only glue the bottom section underneath the slits and don’t get any glue above that. Otherwise the slits may not work how we want them to later.
Now you can glue the top of the outer vase in place. You’ll need to push down on the cardstock until the top of the outer piece is aligned with the top of the vase. When you push down, the slits in the paper should bulge out, creating a rounded shape.
Add some glue to the top edge of the outer piece at one end. Make sure you don’t get any glue below the slits.
Press down and hold the glued section in place against the inner vase for at least fifteen seconds. Make sure the top edge of the outer piece is aligned with the top of the vase. The cardstock will want to spring back up, so make sure you press down with enough pressure to keep it in place until the glue dries.
Continue attaching the rest of the top edge, adding glue to small sections at a time, just like how you attached the bottom edge.
Once you reach the end, add a small line of glue to the area where the two edges overlap, making sure the glue doesn’t go below the slits.
You should now have a vase with a rounded section in the center where the inner cylinder can be seen through the slits.
Now we can attach the ribbon and bow at the top.
Grab the long rectangular piece. This will be the ribbon. Apply a small amount of glue at one end. Press that end against the vase in the area with the seam, about half an inch below the top.
Wrap the rest of the ribbon around the vase, making sure it’s straight and the ends will be lined up with each other. Adjust its position if needed before the glue dries.
Once the first end is completely attached, apply a small amount of glue to the opposite end and attach it to the vase, making sure the two ends line up with each other. They will overlap just a bit.
Now grab the bow piece, which sort of looks like sunglasses lenses. Use a bone folder or scraper to gently curve the rounded “lens” areas so they can be folded inward toward each other and glued at the center to make two loops of a bow.
Apply a dot of glue to the small end of each loop and attach them to the thin section in the center of the piece. Be careful not to fold or crease the loops as you do this.
Next, take the small rectangle and glue one short end to the back of the bow, which will be the same side to which you glued the loop ends. Orient the rectangle piece so the long edges are perpendicular to the bow loops.
Now wrap the rectangle piece around the front of the bow and glue the other end to the back side, directly on top of the first end.
Take the two remaining pieces -- the bow ends -- and glue them to the back of the bow at angles. Once they’re attached, it should look like a real bow with ribbon ends peaking out from underneath the bow’s loops on either side.
Lastly, you can add the finished bow to the front of the vase -- the side opposite the seams -- by applying a dot of glue to the back center and pressing it against the ribbon strip on the vase.
If you’re making paper flowers without stems for your vase like I am, there’s one more thing you’ll need to do to prepare your vase.
NOTE: If you're using store-bought silk or artificial flowers with full-length stems and you left the top of your vase open, you can skip this step.
First, plug in and turn on your hot glue gun.
Take a foam hemisphere and remove the shrinkwrap from it (if there is any). Make sure the bottom is nice and flat so it can sit evenly on top of the vase’s top circle.
Once the glue gun is preheated, put the hot glue finger caps on and apply a generous amount of glue to the bottom of the foam hemisphere.
Press it down onto the top of the vase and make sure it’s centered within the circle. Hold it in place until the glue dries, which shouldn’t take long.
Your finished vase should look similar to mine.
Assemble and Attach the Flowers
You can fill your vase with any type and number of flowers you wish — the possibilities are endless! I have several paper flower designs on my blog, but I’m just going to cover the four types I made for my vase in this tutorial.
If you're making broad petal dahlias, you can follow my Paper Dahlia Tutorial to assemble them. Just skip down to the section titled "8" Broad Petal Dahlia" under "Step 4." For the purposes of this Paper Flower Bouquet tutorial, you can disregard the steps for making the larger broad petal dahlias.
If you're making the 3" Gerbera daisies or 1" small daisies, you can follow my Paper Daisy Tutorial to assemble them. For the larger daisies, I've already separated the inner and outer petals so they can be cut on different colors of cardstock and glued together before rolling. The small daisies don't include the inner petals, so you will only need one color of cardstock for each.
If you're making gardenias, you can follow my Quilled Paper Gardenia Tutorial to assemble them.
If you're making carnations, you can follow my Rolled Paper Carnation Tutorial to assemble them.
Here's what each of my assembled flowers looks like.
NOTE: If you don't want to add a stem or sepal onto your finished flower, you can leave those off and glue the flower's bottom directly onto the foam hemisphere.
If you want to add a sepal and stem to any of your carnations, just follow the directions in my Rolled Paper Carnation Tutorial linked above. Here's what two assembled carnations -- one with a stem and one without -- look like.
If you want to add a sepal and stem to any of your finished dahlias, 3" daisies, or gardenias, it's easy. Let me show you how!
First, decide which flowers you want to be taller in your bouquet. I gave seven of my flowers stems -- about a third of my total bouquet. It’s best to have a variety of colors and types of flowers with stems so your bouquet looks nice and balanced when complete.
Grab the first flower to which you want to attach a sepal and stem. Then find the correctly-sized sepal. The sepals for all three flower types are shaped the same, but the dahlia sepals are slightly larger than the other two.
Plug in and turn on your hot glue gun if it’s not already.
While waiting for the glue gun to preheat, use your wire cutters to cut your floral wire so you have a piece between 3” and 4” long.
Poke one end of the wire through the center of the sepal. Be careful not to tear the paper.
Use your pliers to bend the wire about 0.5” from the top at a 90-degree angle. This will keep the wire stem from slipping through the hole in the sepal.
You’ll want to put your hot glue finger caps on for the next step to prevent your fingers from getting burned.
To really secure the stem in place, add some hot glue inside the sepal around the bent wire. Press against the wire from underneath the sepal to make sure the wire is well attached.
Once the glue is set and the wire is secure, add more hot glue to cover the entire center of the sepal. Then press the bottom of the flower onto the glue and apply pressure to adhere the sepal to the flower base.
That’s it! Follow the same steps to add sepals and stems to the rest of your chosen flowers.
Once all your flowers are ready, you can prepare your leaves by folding or scoring them down the center. This step is optional, but I think it gives the leaves more dimension.
Just fold each leaf in half to form a crease along its length. You can use your scraper tool, the edge of a ruler, or even the corner of a desk to help get a straight crease.
Now we can attach all our flowers and leaves to the foam hemisphere to make our bouquet!
Plug in and turn on your hot glue gun if it’s not already, and put the hot glue finger caps on.
First, decide how you want to arrange your bouquet. It helps to lay out all of your assembled flowers on your work surface in the approximate location you want them to be in your bouquet.
You can use hot glue to attach the flowers without stems directly to the foam hemisphere. Just apply a generous amount of glue to the bottom of the flower and press it down onto the foam, holding it in place with medium pressure until the glue dries.
If you're not sure exactly where you want to place some of your flowers, you can use just a small amount of hot glue to temporarily hold the flowers in place while you get everything arranged. Once you've decided on the permanent placement of the flowers, gently pull them off one at a time and apply a generous amount of hot glue to the bottom to attach each flower permanently.
After your flowers are attached, you can add leaves between them wherever you think they look best. Just apply a small amount of hot glue to the leaf "stem" and press it down onto the foam. You might need to use tweezers or another thin object with a flat end to press the leaf stem onto the foam while the glue dries.
If you have any gaps, you can use leaves or small flowers -- like the small daisies -- to fill them in and hide the foam.
If you choose to make a bigger bouquet with some taller flowers, you can add the flowers to which you attached short wire stems earlier. Gently push the free end of each wire stem into the foam wherever you'd like your taller flowers to be.
If some of your stems are too long, just pull them back out and cut them with your wire cutters. Then push the shorter stem back into the same hole in the foam.
It's easy to rearrange the taller flowers in your bouquet if needed just by pulling the wire stem out of the foam and inserting it back into a different spot.
STEP 4: SHOW IT OFF!
You're done! Here's what my finished paper flower bouquet looks like.
I just love paper flowers, and I think this is a perfect way to display them. You can even leave the top of the vase open and put some silk or artificial flowers inside instead. Fill the vase with the favorite flower of a friend or family member and give it to them as a special handmade gift. I guarantee they’ll love it!
