With a few basic paper crafting supplies and a few sheets of
paper you can create beautiful lasting plumeria flowers. String them together for a striking
graduation Lei, tuck behind your ear for a feminine tropical touch, grace a gift
bag or box for Mother's Day, or even decorate a summertime Luau.
One little tip is to spray your finished flowers with a perfume spray for an added sense/scents :)
One little tip is to spray your finished flowers with a perfume spray for an added sense/scents :)
Create your flower
A plumeria is a deceptively simple flower. It took me a long time of studying the flower
and many prototypes before I came up with a full-proof, easy to create flower.
You will will only need
*Cream Colored lightweight Cardstock (67 lb works best)
*2" long oval punch (you can use slightly different sizes if you want)
*1 1/4" circle punch
*Scissors
*Adhesive (I used an ATG gun, but anything will work as long as it's re-positional to a degree)
*Colored Ink and Sponge
Start by coloring/inking your petals. Any tear drop shape petal will work, but I used a 2" oval punch, then cut one end to a point. You can download a template here. I've also included a JPG and PNG file so you can use your electronic die-cutting machine for super quick petals!
I used a variety of ink pads I had at home to create the color combinations I wanted.
Use a stamping sponge and ink one end of the petal until about halfway. Ink the other color from the other end until halfway, then blend the two colors. You can add a 3rd color to deepen the edges at the top of the petal.
While the petals are a bit damp from the ink, use any barrel shaped tool (like a pencil or pen) and curl one side up and the other down. It will have a wave shape to it. Let petals dry for a few hours, or use a heat gun to speed up the process.
Punch a circle and mark center with a pencil. Cut from edge of circle to center. Apply adhesive along cut edge and fold over at least 1/4 of the circle to create a cone shape.
This will hold the petals in place.
Apply adhesive to bottom tip of petals, in the center and not more that a 1/2" from the tip.
Place first petal in cone with tip touching center of cone. Repeat with each petal, overlapping slightly.
With the last petal, overlap like the other, but also slip the other side under the first petal. You should have the unique Plumeria pinwheel center.
To create a Lei, you'll need 16 Plumeria flowers, a 36" piece of kitchen twine and two 9" pieces of stiff ribbon.
Double knot the center of the twine.
Pierce the center of each flower. Use a threader (in this case, I use a dental floss threader available in any pharmacy) to bring one end of twine though bottom of flower. Repeat on other side of twine, so both flowers meet in center double knot.
With flower against double knot in center, tie another double knot, about 1 1/4" from center of flower (or 2/3rds from center of petal). This will create the perfect spaces between each flower. Repeat the double knots and add flowers until you have 8 on each side.
It's difficult to tie the kitchen twine behind your neck, so I tied it to some larger stiff ribbon at each end.
I've also including some printable sentiments that you can download, print and cut out to add a sentiment to the Lei.
You can also add these paper plumerias to gift bags, boxes or even tuck one behind you ear.
If you have any questions, please email me.
Enjoy!
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