We love featuring the creativity of our savvy couples! Sandra is an active and eco-conscious member of our Facebook group and regularly shares inspirational posts featuring items that are earth-friendly. So we asked her if she would mind sharing some of her ideas and projects with all of you, and she happily said yes! Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing some of her creative DIY projects, so stay tuned for more unique ideas to decorate your wedding! xoxo, Jessica

Hi, I’m Sandra, a 30-year-old Swede who loves most things related to weddings and events, especially decorations and graphic design. I enjoy crafting and making things, preferably with natural or reused materials for the sake of the environment. I like wandering around thrift stores looking at all the bits and pieces, and taking long nature walks with my fiancé and a camera. Before the pandemic, I worked as a server, host, and bartender at a concert hall. Now I’m just trying to figure out my future one day at a time.

In this post, I’ll be sharing my favorite way to make paper roses. These roses are easy and fast to make, and a perfect way to recycle any type of paper into wedding decorations. I’ve used this paper rose method with old book pages, sheet music, packing paper, and I’ve even used coffee filters. Pages from a magazine, comic book, children’s book or atlas would work as well.

If you want something more colorful or in specific colors, use watercolors to add your desired hue either before or after cutting the petals. Experiment and see what suits your style!

DIY Paper Rose Tutorial

These DIY paper roses can either be attached to a wire or glued into place. You can use your finished roses for bouquets, centerpieces, flower walls, hairpieces or to decorate signs or lanterns.

Materials needed:

Three sheets of paper
Scissors
Gluestick
Something to curl the petals, I use a small paintbrush handle

How to make a paper rose:

Time per flower: 10 minutes

A step-by-step tutorial to make a paper rose out of any type of paper.

Select your paper.
For this tutorial, I am using book pages as my paper.
Fold your paper
Fold the page diagonally twice and then in half. Then cut the excess paper from the top of your cone shape. Repeat so you have three cones.
Cut into a petal shape
Cut a rounded shape into the cones to form your petals. Cut a small bit of the tips off.
Unfold the cones
Unfold the three cones. Cut one petal off the first, two off the second, and three off the third.
Add glue
Glue the pieces together, all except the single and double petal.
Stack petals to form your rose
Stack each of the pieces and glue them together into a completed rose. Curl the ends of your petals around something round and thin, like a small paintbrush to add more depth.

It’s as simple as that! Customize these paper flowers by choosing colored paper to match your wedding theme, or even by adding paint or watercolor to your finished products. The possibilities are endless, and you can make them any size you wish.