Book Page Flowers

We're two weeks away from the wedding!

2 weeks!

It's still pretty surreal to me and I don't think the time frame hasn't set in yet.

However, with the deadline nearing, it was time to kick it in to high gear with making flowers from book pages.

These flowers are going to be used as part of the centerpieces. Our theme is literary vintage so, in sticking with that (and my love for Harry Potter), I've been creating flowers made out of old HP book pages. As an English teacher, my bookshelves are constantly rotating out books that are too old and destroyed to keep on my shelves. From the day I got engaged I knew that I wanted paper flowers from book pages so I started saving several old HP books to use.

The first step is to buy/create a stencil that you will use for all the flowers. The one that I made is a five stemmed rose. I ended up cutting out a stencil with my cricut machine on some thick cardstock.

I'm sure you're wondering "why didn't you just cut everything out with the cricut machine?" Well I tried that and it didn't work. The book pages are too thin to hold up against the stickiness of the cricut mat and they fall apart when you try to pull them up.

I then used the stencil to trace the flower pattern on the book pages. I was able to get about two flowers per page (using the large hardback books).

Then it's time to cut them out! I usually cut about three layers deep which helps to cut down on time. Thankfully we did a Game of Thrones marathon right before the final episode for season 5 and I spent about four hours cutting out flowers.

For the flowers, you need three pieces of petals and a little bit extra for the bottom. 

The next step is to trace lines across the flower. You can use or a ruler or, like me, just use the edge of one of the book pages and trace a line as if cutting the flower in half. Repeat this for the entire flower.

These are the petals of your flower. Side note: Once you make enough of these you can skip this step. I've made so many that I just wing the cuts instead of drawing the lines.

Then comes more cutting. For the first flower, cut down one petal to the center. Set aside.

For the second flower, cut out and entire petal. Set aside.

For the last flower, cut out two petals together. Set aside.

With the first flower, bend it slightly so the two unattached petals pull away from each other. Dab some glue (I use a glue gun) on the bottom petal. "Fold" the top petal on top of the petal with glue and press down to connect them.

Repeat this for the second and third flower. Second side note: If you want you can trim the edges of the petal that is glued (sometimes it turns out uneven) but this isn't too big of a deal since you'll be curling the edges soon anyway.

With the two petal flower, bend it slightly so the top corners cross. Place another small line of glue and fold the sides over to form a cone.

For the final petal I use a small paintbrush. Holding the petal on top, wrap the petal around to create a singular cone. Place a dab of glue on the last corner of the petal and finish wrapping it into a cylinder. When done, remove from paintbrush.

Once all the petals are rolled, cut off the bottom portion of each. 

Using the paintbrush, roll each petal around the end so that they curl outward. Repeat for all petals. 

For the base, I use a small round cookie cutter and one of the extra sections from the book pages. 

Trace the circle on top of the page and cut out. 

Now its time to put them all together! 

Place a dab of glue on the bottom piece and set the largest petal on top. Hold for a few second to set the glue. 

After this, you build each round upward, adding glue to the inside of each petal to hold the frame. 

Ta-da! All done! 

For my wedding I've added a small jeweled stone to the center. Simply add a dot of glue and set it in the middle.