Crepe paper roses...

Do you ever create something that you just LOVE? Once in awhile that happens to me.... I adore these little flower balls... funny how some little strips of crepe paper can turn into something so beautiful!

One day I was playing around with the Melissa Frances crepe paper, starting twisting and turning it, and came up with a cute little flower that resembled a rose. I had some styrofoam balls, so I decided I'd try to hot glue them on and see what it looked like. Turned out that I fell in love with them!

I showed Melissa what the crepe paper could do and she decided to have me make a few to hang in her booth at CHA!

I recently posted these over at 2 peas and got a very nice response, thank you so much. So I'd like to share with you how I made them.

1. Cut crepe paper into strips of 9" long x 3/4" wide or so.2. Take one strip and start rolling the end. Roll about 3 times or so to get a good start on it and make sure it's not going to roll back apart. Then hold it with your left hand. With your right hand, grab the long end and twist the paper around one half turn. **This will create the petal look.** Then continue to roll it up. Twist over again creating a fold each time. Roll. Twist. Roll. Twist. Continue until you get to the end of the strip.

3. When you come to the end of the roll, very carefully put a dab of hot glue on the end to hold the end and secure it closed. You should have created something like this:
4. Then...when you get a bunch of these made, you will hot glue them onto a styrofoam ball (any size). I found that the hot glue likes to seep down into the pores of the styrofoam, so it was easier for me to glue the roses together on each side with hot glue. Be VERY careful. I burned myself many, many times! The glue is difficult to see against the white styrofoam.

You should end up with something like these:I plan to make lots more, wouldn't they be cute hanging in a little girl's room? Or an Easter or Spring decoration? Or a wedding! There are so many things you could use them for. The largest one in this photo is about 10 inches across. I love the big ones! The clear stars were found at Target in the gift wrapping section at Christmas time and the keyhole is by Melissa Frances, and is just stuck onto the star with a glue dot.

If you are like me and you need a visual...I did make a video on how to create Crepe paper flowers, it's a little different than these, but the centers are made exactly the same. You can view a video tutorial here. Excuse my voice...I hate listening to myself! lol

This is the project shown in the video. See the center of the white flower? I made it the same way as the flowers above.

New Melissa Frances products here include new resin pieces, Easter ephemera stickers, new Attic Treasures background paper, new Backer Boards (round chipboard background) and new Vintage Posies paper (blue).
Phew! I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions regarding the paper roses!
Danielle