Paper flowers tutorial

        

Spring is here at last so I thought it was time to do some spring crafts. I decided these flowers would be a great craft to start with, not only are they fun to do, they also really brighten up the place! Last year we made a spring table and I'm hoping to do the same this year too. It's a great way to teach the children about the seasons as well as creating a space to display all their wonderful crafts.

        

To make these flowers you will need some coloured paper, scissors, pipe cleaners, buttons and a stapler or sticky tape to attach the various pieces together. I had a pack of A4 paper and cut each piece into quarters. You will need 2 quarters for each flower.

        

Firstly, take 2 quarters of the paper and fold into a consertina. This is a great activity to help develop those fine motor skills.

        

Then join the 2 pieces together with staples or tape.

        

Get a pipe cleaner and twist round the centre of the paper as shown here.

        

Thread a button onto the pipe cleaner to make the centre of the flower.

        

Open up one side of the concertina and staple or stick together.

                

Do the same with the other side to complete the flower.

            

R smelling his flower! He couldn't manage to fold the concertina on his own but enjoyed using the stapler and threading on the buttons.

        

Our first 2 flowers!

        

Next, I thought it would be a good idea to make vases for the flowers to go in. I found 2 small, plastic bottles and gave them to the children to paint.

        

Here they are painting the bottles.

        

The finished vases. I was particularly impressed with D's stripy vase!

        

Here are the flowers in the vase ready to be placed onto our spring table.