Crepe Paper Crocus

As one of the harbingers of spring this flower is perfect for starting this year’s paper flower journey! 

You will need:

  • Crepe paper (crocuses typically come in white, yellow, lilac or purple. But you obviously don’t have to stick to natural colours)
  • tissue paper in orange
  • craft paper in green (mine was 240gsm, but thinner one works too. For a more cohesive look get it in the same shade as your green florist tape)
  • florist tape in white and green 
  • floral wire in 1mm thickness
  • white gel pen
  • pencil
  • glue (I used UHU; the one that drops less. Make sure you don’t take a water based glue as it may dissolve the colour of the crepe paper)

 

Tools I used: 

  • Scissors
  • wire cutter
  • (triangle) ruler
  • bone folder
  • I want to be clear here that I used an overkill of tools because I already had them. You definitely don’t need to use as many or dash out to get them. For example, you can replace the bone folder with a butter knife or if you’re careful an open pair of scissors. I will list options to them when they appear in the tutorial.

You will also need this pattern. 

Crocusses have 6 flower petals. For these you can cut a strip of crepe paper, fold it, and cut them out using your pattern. Be careful of the direction of the paper, as in the next step you will use that to give the bloom more life and dimension. So cut it with the lines on the paper vertically to the pattern.  

Once cut out you will “cup them” which means making the most of the stretch the crepe paper can offer. Hold the petal on the outer edges and gently pull, stretching it into a curved shape. This step might take a bit of practice. But as we’re working with organic shapes here don’t worry too much. Irregularities make the flower look more lifelike. 

Crocus leaves are rather thin and stiff, so I chose to make them from craft paper rather than crepe paper. For the leaves draw 3 bigger and 2 smaller ones onto the green cardstock paper. Then mark the middle of your leaf with a bone folder  (or the back of a butter knife or a nail file. Anything that has a point but isn’t sharp enough to cut). 

Using this as a guide, draw a white line with your white gel marker. Cut it out and fold it. For this I used a small steel ruler, but any straight thin object will work; you can also use the ruler you used for marking. Set them all aside. 

For the inner parts of the crocus cut thin strips from your orange tissue paper and twist it. Cut 6 in a length of 2-3cm. 

Before you can assemble everything, you need to prepare the wire. Cut a piece as long as you need. Mine tend to be 10-12cm long which is fine for sticking it into a piece of floral foam, but this might vary for you depending on how you want to display your flowers. Once you cut your wire, cut a piece of white floral tape, and fold the tip of it over and wrap it around until the upper part of the wire is covered. This will give you a base to glue all your parts onto.

So now it’s time for the fun part where it all comes together! Start off by gluing your strands of tissue paper around the tip of your wire. Try to disperse them somewhat evenly. 

Then glue on the petals one by one by spreading glue on the lower, straight part of the petal. It should be glued to the top part of the wire as well, so that the white parts don’t show up. 

When assembling the petals first take three petals and position them so they reach around the whole perimeter. Then glue the next three on top of those, covering the gaps. 

Crocusses have white stems, so next you will use the white floral tape to cover the wire. For a touch of extra realism, you can try to rip off the start of the tape, so it looks more uneven. Then wrap the tape around the wire almost all the way down. When assembling the leaves, I like to start with the small ones. So put glue on the bottom of one, press it to the stem about two thirds down and then fixate it with your green floral tape. 

Continue gluing the leaves on and wrapping the tape around assembling them quite close to each other. Once all the leaves are applied keep on wrapping the tape for about 1cm more leaving the bottom of the wire exposed (unless you plan to put the crocus in a see-through vase)
As you see with mine it would have been nice to have the leaves and the tape in a coordinating colour, but I didn’t think about it. 

If you want to add a bud to your ensemble, use the smaller petal pattern piece and cut 4 from crepe paper. Then cut one each from the leaf shapes. Prepare the wire the same way as with the big one but don’t cut any tissue paper since it won’t be seen. When assembling the bud glue two petals opposite from each other and gently glue the tips of them together. Then glue the other two petals the same way. Assemble the rest of the flower as written above. 

Lastly, shape the flower. This will be what makes it look lifelike. Gently tug on the petals and leaves to change their position and bend the wire to make it look less static.

You’re done, congratulations! You can now display your beautiful little crocus any way you like! 

I used floral foam to make it stand up before I put it into a little flowerpot and covered it with little rocks, but you could also put it in a little vase, cup or whatever else looks good to you. You don’t have to stick to a natural look either; since these won’t need water (and rather shouldn’t be exposed to it) you have every creative freedom with placing them!

I would love to see what you come up with! If you share pictures of your creations, please tag @thetinkery so I can see what you made!