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:
- Recollection Assorted Starter Pack – Basic assorted colors, great starter pack, perfect weight for most papercraft projects
- Metallic Shimmer Assorted Set from Amazon – This set is a little lighter in weight but the colors are beautiful in 3D
- 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
- 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.
- Assorted Pink Set from Paper Paper – This is a must-have for paper flower makers. The variety is perfect to create a bouquet.
- Assorted Purple Set from Paper Paper – This is another must-have for paper flower makers. I love the variety of finishes in this pack.
- Metallic Variety Set from Paper Paper – I don’t know any avid paper crafter that doesn’t use Stardream metallics line of shimmer paper. It is the only metallic cardstock line that I know of that has such variety and has colored cores.
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.

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