I am so excited to share this post with you today! Because I made the coolest party decoration for Samantha's birthday out of the Bohemian Designer paper. It all started after a friend asked me if we could make a Kusudama flower bouquet for her upcoming wedding.
Wikipedia told me..."Kusudama originate from ancient Japanese culture, where they were used for incense and potpourri; possibly originally being actual bunches of flowers or herbs. The word itself is a combination of two Japanese words kusuri, Medicine, and tama, Ball. They are now typically used as decorations, or as gifts."
I have made Kusudama flowers before and used them for a Christmas ornament. So we started folding paper to make 120 flowers! Which got me to thinking that I should make another ornament for the birthday party decor I had been working on. (See the banner and shaker frame in these posts.)
Here is the Bohemian Kusudama Flower Ornament.
Are you interested in knowing how to make a Kusudaman Flower??? Well, here is your free tutorial.
KUSUDAMA FLOWER TUTORIAL
1. Start with a square piece of light weight designer paper. 3" x 3" is the typical size, but you can play around with it and make other sizes, so long as you start with a square. Stampin' Up!'s new Envelope Paper is PERFECT for these flowers. And is the paper I have used for the tutorial. For my ornament for the party decor I used the Bohemian Designer Series Paper. It is a heavier weight paper but is doable.
2. Fold your paper in half so that two corners meet. I recommend using a bone folder to press all the folds.
3. Fold one bottom corner up so that the point of the corner lines up with the top corner.
4. Repeat step 3 on the other side.
5. Fold back one of the "flaps" so that the edge of the flap lines up with the edge of the square on the same side.
6. Repeat step 5 on the other side.
7. Open up the folded flaps and press them flat with the bone folder.
8. Fold down the tops of the open flaps so that the edges line up with the edges of the square.
9. Fold the flaps in on the scored line.
10. See the pictures below for how to glue the flower closed.
Add some Multipurpose Liquid glue and squeeze/pinch the flower for a several seconds to secure. Then you have one petal of a Kusudama flower.
You need a total of five petals to make one flower.
Then you glue them together like this, hot glue works the best for all the assembling.
Add the third petal.
Then the fourth and finally the fifth.
If want this flower on a stem, hot glue a piece of floral wire in the groove of the first flower and then proceed glueing on the remaining petals.
To make a ball or ornament you need a total of 12 flowers, that is 60 pieces of paper cut to your desired size!
Here is how to make the ball.
Hot glue two flowers together, lining up two petals like this...
Add the third flower, you are in a sense glueing 5 flowers in a ring around one center flower.
Repeat with the fourth and fifth flowers, and this will make one half of the ball.
Repeat these steps to make another half. Then glue the two halves together to make a ball. If you want a "tassel" or string to hang it by, make sure to add that before glueing the halves together.
You can see here I added buttons to the center of each flower.
And hung it from the chandelier over the table the kids sat at for dessert at the birthday party.
Please let me know if you have any questions on how to make this fun project. I am here to help!
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