DIY Paper Carnation

Carnations get such a bad rep, they are cute and versatile flowers that can complement any bouquet.

While I’ve made the rolled carnation type of paper flower before, I wanted to redesign something that gave a little more control over how the petals offset each out.

So I came up with a semi-rolled layered paper flower template that hopefully looks closer to the real thing.

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Materials for Paper Carnation

Cardstock – it is really important to use medium weight cardstock with colored cores for this one. Otherwise your flower petalls will look super frayed. 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.

Glue – I like to use either a polymer-based glue or a hot glue gun for this project:

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

Templates – This paper carnation template is available for free both in SVG and printable formats in my resource library.

How to assemble the Paper Carnation

Step 1: Cut out the templates

I used a blue light grip mat for this paper flower. It is intricate but still doable on the lighter grip mat.

Step 2: Fold the petals,

I like to do a gentle crease down the middle of the petal vertically.

Step 3: Start with the smallest topmost layer of the cutouts.

I like to glue this smallest layer into a bulb first. Then I glue that to the the base of the next largest layer.

Step 4: Glue the petals to the bulb

I then glue each petal to the center bulb.

Step 5: Glue the petal strips into a loop

The less glue the better, the faster it dries.

Step 6: Continue with the rest of the layer in the same manner.

I like to go from the smallest layer to the base largest layer. As I glue each layer to each other, I try and offset the petals. This is a very forgiving template design so it doesn’t have to be positioned perfectly.