These paper carnations use regular-size cupcake liners, hot glue, and sticks from the yard for stems. I made mine with pink-and-red Valentine liners and displayed the finished flowers in Dollar Tree glassware.
What I used
- Regular-size cupcake liners, about four or five per flower
- Sticks for stems
- A hot glue gun and glue
- A glass or vase for the finished flowers
1. Gently crumple a liner
I gently crumpled each cupcake liner to make the paper easier to work with.
2. Fold it twice
Fold the liner in half, then in half again. Those two folds give you the quarter-circle shape shown below.
3. Twist the pointed end
Twist the corner end of the folded liner to form a small base. It does not need to be perfect; you need enough of a twisted end to hot-glue it to the stem.
4. Glue the folded liners around a stick
I used sticks from our yard. Glue the twisted bases around the top of a stick, building the flower with about four or five liners.
5. Fluff the paper into a carnation
Once the liners were attached, I opened and fluffed them out. I added small dabs of hot glue between some of the liners to hold them together and make the flower look fuller.
Display the finished flowers
I put the twig stems in my Dollar Tree glassware. The patterned paper gives the bouquet its Valentine colors without needing real flowers.
The inspiration: my coffee filter wreath
My coffee filter wreath inspired me to try shaping another everyday paper item into flowers. This was my first attempt at the carnations, and the fluffing took a little practice.
The steps in pictures
For more seasonal projects, browse the Valentine craft archive.
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