Paper Flowers of the Cupcake Variety

I'm sure you've had those moments when walking through your favorite craft store you pick up things that are too cute to pass up.  You're not exactly sure what you're going to do with the item(s) yet, but it's a good deal and it's cute.  Then you're standing in line at the cash register and you are surrounded by those dollar bins (eh hem, Michael's) and do the same thing--you pick up 1, 2, or 10 $1 items thinking, "Hey, it's only a buck.  Not sure what I'm gonna do with this, but I'll think of something." Yeah, we've all been there!

I picked up these rose-cottage-chic cupcake liners from the dollar bins at Michael's--funny because I don't bake, but I thought they were cute (of course).   How about flowers?  I've seen these around at different places, so I had an idea of how to make them.  Going into this blindly, this is what I came up with:

Supplies: 

♥ cupcake liners

♥ pipe cleaners

♥ floral wire (optional)

♥ glue gun

 1 ♥ gather two pipe cleaners together and twist the floral wire around them (length wise). the floral wire is optional but I wanted the pipe cleaners to be a bit more sturdy so that I can bend and shape the stems when I arrange the blooms in a vase. 

  2 ♥ fold over (doesn't need to be neat) the top inch or so of one end which serves as the center of your flower.  poke a whole in the center of one cupcake liner (using the other end of the pipe cleaner stem--it's pointy enough to make a hole) and push it up from the other end.

 3 ♥ dab a bit of glue around the center of the flower, along the pipe cleaner, and then gather/scrunch up the cupcake liner making sure it "catches" the glue.

  4 ♥ continue adding cupcake liners (dabbing glue around the base at the top of the flower before you scrunch it up), scrunching away until you get the fullness you like (I used about 8-10 cupcake liners in the flower below).  poking the hole in the middle of the liner will get you a more symmetrical flower while poking it off-center will get you more of a layered petal look (this is what I did with the flower below).

There you go!  Quick to put together, easy to make, and cute too!  Make them for parties, gifts, or home decor!  There are lots of different types of cupcake liners so the possibilities are endless.  I'm going to try scalloped edged liners next time--I think that would turn out really pretty.  In the meantime, I've made myself a small bouquet of cupcake flowers for my office--good for me especially since I have no green thumb whatsoever!

♥ Happy Crafting! ♥