Hawaiian Hibiscus Paper Flowers Template

We are vacationing in Hawaii soon so I was inspired to design this paper hibiscus flower.

I actually ended up designing 2 Hawaiian flower templates each with a slightly different stamen.

These little paper flowers are so simple to make and add a tropical feel for any craft or decor project.

I didn’t quite have time to make enough to create a leis but I did manage to add them to a cute card perfect for any occasion.

This one was super straight forward on the Cricut. I just had to make a good template that would give a nice 3d effect to the flower.

While the petals are simple enough to cut by hand, the stamen pieces are a little bit more intricate and I would highly recommend cutting it with a cutting machine.

Materials for DIY Paper Hibiscus Flowers

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Bright Colored Cardstock – I like using medium weight (65lbs) cardstock with colored centers for paper flowers. I highly recommend the non-textured cardstock especially if you are cutting it with a cutting machine. The textured cardstock tends to fray easily and falls apart for more intricate designs. Here are some of my favorite brands:

Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
Cricut Joy Insert Card Packs – You don’t have to use these with the Cricut Joy, they are nice material kids for cardmaking.
Cardstock Warehouse Brand on Amazon – I love the quality of all the matte-colored cardstock with Cardstock Warehouse. It is my go-to brand for individual matte colors that I might need
Poptone Assorted Variety Pack – This is the perfect peppy assortment of colors of heavy cardstock. It’s a heavy cardstock assortment with colors I actually use frequently for cardmaking.
Seasonal Assorted Variety Pack – This is a slight variation on the Poptone assortment and has a quite few neutrals that complement almost any accent color.
Stardream Metallics Line – For paper crafts, the Stardream line is the go-to for a metallic shimmer finish. It is the perfect sheen to make any project pop. The core is also colored is which hard to find for metallic paper.

Tacky Glue – Or a glue gun.

Cutting Machine – I use a Cricut. Check out my recommendations for Cricut machines and accessories for beginners for more info.

Template – This Hawaiian hibiscus flower template is free in both SVG and printable PDF formats in my resource library.

Tutorial for DIY Hawaiian Paper Flower

Step 1: Cut out the hibiscus template

I cut my templates out using the Cricut cutting machine. I like to use fresh blue mats for this kind of projects. They are easier to clean up and have enough grip for this design.

If you must use textured cardstock, I would recommend using a standard grip mat. The textured cardstock tends to slide around a bit on the lighter grip mats.

Step 2: Glue the tab at the end of the petals strip to the end

I have 2 designs in the templates set. If you are just using the flat 5 petal designs, you can go ahead and skip this step.

Step 3: Attached the hibiscus stamen

Dip the edges of the centerpiece on a dot of glue and place in the center of the flower

Depending on the end projects, Sometimes I curl the petals with a scraper. If you don’t have a scraper, you can always just use a credit card or any type of straight edge.