D-I-Y Japanese Paper Flower

I’m not really into paper crafts but I was duty-bound to learn these things because one manager will be returning to the US next week and the send off party we will be holding in her honor will be themed “Flores de Mayo/Fiesta” in line with the Fiesta-filled month of May. I don’t think she knows what Flores de Mayo is so she wouldn’t mind the much less elaborate, cost effective corporate version (translation: cheap).

I’m involved in the coordinating, the designing and the logistics (translation: Girl Friday). So I searched online and skimmed through a few how-to videos (I would like to acknowledge the owners of the videos and sites but, as usual, with my frenetic and disorderly manner of researching, I can’t remember which videos I actually watched and which blogs I have visited.)

Maybe some kid could find some use for this post for some school project.

From left to right, left to right, left to right, left to right…

Picture 1: Buy Japanese paper (tissue paper could probably work, if you’re too cheap to buy Jap paper).

Picture 2: Get 3 sheets (or 4 or 30, whatever), cut these in the middle and place them on top of the other. No need to get too finicky about aligning them.

Pictures 3 and 4: Fold them accordion or paper fan style (Crosswise. Lengthwise sucks. It results to a deformed flower).

Picture 5: Tie your accordion in the middle with whatever you have. Cut slits at the sides and insert the string in them to avoid crumpling the paper. (Mine still ended up crumpled. I have heavy fingers). Cut both ends in a semi-circle.

Picture 6: Spread out the paper like a fan.

Picture 7: Separate the sheets (as gracefully as possible) from each other by pulling the sheets up, top first, until all sheets are separated. Patience, they say is a virtue, especially if you used 8 layers of sheets.

Picture 8: Fix the petals of your flower.

Picture 9 below: Admire your giant crumpled flower.