Book Crafts: I Made Gorgeous Paper Flowers
I'm not really a craftsy person, but when you're planning a small, low-budget wedding, you learn real quick. You get bit by the DIY bug the minute you figure out that weddings are just elaborate craft projects.
I figured if I'm going to be doing wedding crafts, I might as well make them bookish. It's only appropriate since my fiancé proposed with a book. So between cute old Reader's Digest centerpieces, book page table runners, and quotes from literature a-plenty in the ceremony, it's going to be adorably book nerdy.
The craft I've had the most fun making so far are the paper flowers. I have my bouquet, a smaller bouquet to throw, my partner's boutonniere, and centerpiece decorations that are all paper flowers. Here's my bouquet:
Picture of me (white lady, brown hair, late 20s) holding my bouquet of paper flowers and smiling.
I posted that picture on Instagram a few weeks ago and a bunch of people asked me how I made them, so I thought I'd share here. My future mother-in-law found this tutorial on Pinterest by author Linda K. Sienkiewicz. It works for flowers of various sizes––the ones I'm holding in the photo are pretty large, like the size of an actual rose in full bloom. But my partner's boutonniere is made of much smaller flowers.
I'm not sure if it's because I'm generally not very craftsy and therefore clumsy or if the flowers are just tedious to make, but it takes about 10-15 minutes per flower. But to me, it's worth it because I get to keep my bouquet and not have to worry about dried flowers breaking into bits or them getting crushed or something. And they won't get ugly when they die because paper flowers don't die. Seems like a win-win to me!
I'll post more about my bookish wedding crafts this year (the big day is 7 months away!) and most of them could be repurposed for non-wedding stuff. For example, you could decorate a wreath with the paper flowers or adorn your bookshelves or use them as bookmarks (the stem, obviously).
And you know what the best part about making bookish crafts is? You can make them while listening to an audiobook. Double the book nerdery!
(And shoutout to my future mother-in-law Edna and my bestie Victoria for helping make these. It goes much faster when you have help.)
