Blue and white paper anemone flowers on wooden embroidery hoop

How to make a paper flower wreath

16 August 2022
6 Minutes to read

Posted by

16 August 2022
6 Minutes to read

Paper flowers are becoming more and more popular. They’re now seen a lot at weddings, but also make great decorations for your home and can be given away as thoughtful gifts.

In this tutorial I’ll show you how you can make paper flowers with your ScanNCut and then how to make a wreath out of them.

My flower choice for this project is the anemone. I’ve stayed traditional and made them in different shades of blue, violet and white. However, you can make them any colour you want – brights, greys, monotone, whatever suits your individual style.

What you’ll need

Cutting patterns - download here
60gsm weight paper in a variety of colours*
ScanNCut
Standard cutting mat
Auto Blade
Spatula
Hot glue gun
Wooden embroidery hoop or wire wreath frame

Blue and white paper in front of Brother ScanNCut

*I find it’s best to use paper that is not completely smooth, but one with a light structure that can be shaped easier. I always buy Canson MiTeintes, Lana Color or Fabriano Tiziano papers for my paper flowers, which are available as larger sheets in many colours.

General instructions relating to ScanNCut:

Always choose the correct mat for your material. The material should stick to the mat securely. Test a small piece on a corner of your mat to make sure you can remove it again without damaging the material. You can find our handy mat and blade guide for ScanNCut DX models here, and the ScanNCut CM models mat and blade guide here.
We recommend that you do a test cut before you cut your design.
Patterns can be transferred to your ScanNCut via USB or WiFi, depending on your model.

How-to:

The anemones consist of two layers of petals, two differently shaped and coloured centres, and the leaves.

Blue and white paper flower pieces flat lay white background

Tip: you can cut these flowers in different sizes, but please make sure that you scale all elements accordingly, so that, for example, the centres don't get too big when you downsize the flowers or vice versa.

Before you start cutting your flowers, I recommend sticking a small piece of paper on the cutting mat to test that the mat doesn't stick too hard. If this is the case, use a mat that is not entirely new – otherwise the delicate parts of the flowers may get damaged when you try to remove them from the mat.

Place the paper on the mat. If you’re just making one or two flowers you can place the different coloured paper for the different parts on the same mat. If you want to make lots of these wreaths, or just the flowers themselves, then use the ScanNCut’s duplicate function to make whole sheets of each of the individual elements.

A Brother ScanNCut with standard cutting mat loaded

After cutting, weed everything, taking special care of the centres of the flowers because they are very delicate.

A hand with small spatula removing coloured paper from a ScanNCut mat

To make the flowers stand out, you need to slightly curl the petals. I use the handle of the spatula and gently curl the petals around them. Then I round off the tips of the flowers in the other direction.

A hand holding a blue paper flower curling the petals round a pen

The procedure for the leaves is similar, but to make it lifelike it’s best to bend the individual parts in different directions.

A hand holding a green paper leaf curling the round a pen

Lay the centres of the flowers in the palm of your hand and press into the centre with end of a pen, the use your fingers to bend the ‘stamens’ up.

A hand holding a white papercut stamen and bending with fingers

Use the glue gun to glue the layers together. First the two flower petal layers, one on top of the other with the petals overlapping, then the white stamens, followed by the black centres. A leaf can be glued below the flower if you like. I do some flowers with leaves, and some without. Use your fingers to press the entire flower together, to make it look even more realistic.

Take your embroidery hoop and all your finished flowers. Now you have to decide how you want to place the flowers, and it’s really up to you! Some things to consider are how you place the colours, will this be asymmetrical, or symmetrical, and where on the hoop will the flowers sit? There are no right or wrong answers, it’s whatever you prefer the most. Take time to move the flowers around before you glue them down. Once you glue, it’s final!

A wooden embroidery hoop with blue and white paper flowers around

Once you’re happy with your final design, glue the flowers and leaves down. Then use leftover leaves to fill in any gaps. You may need/want to cut some of the leaves in half.

Hands cutting a green paper leaf to stick on embroidery frame wreath

Now you’re ready to hang your wreath! One wreath looks lovely, but I think that two or three of them, in different sizes, look very nice together. Will you make these for yourself? Or someone else?

I wish you a lot of joy and fun crafting. I can’t wait to see what you make! Remember to tag in Brother on Instagram and Facebook, and myself too!