Crepe Paper Poinsettias

By Home Decor Contributor Alyssa

Crepe Paper Poinsettia Gift Toppers

I have always been envious of those who can wrap and decorate their Christmas gifts like an expert. To me, the most exciting part of the holiday season is picking out, buying, and wrapping Christmas gifts, even though I’m sort of terrible at it. I get all excited at the concept of giving someone a beautifully wrapped present with something that they will love inside, but then I go for it and when I’m done, I’m pretty disappointed by the lack of holiday magic I feel when looking at them. It probably doesn’t help that I’m too cheap to buy nice wrapping paper.

However, these little paper poinsettias might be the answer to my Christmas-gift -wrapping woes. The supplies are cheap and they are incredibly quick and easy to make. Not to mention, if you’ve got some green wire sitting around, you could make them into a gorgeous Christmas dinner centerpiece (or simply use them as a decoration in a vase) by attaching the wire as a “stem.” You could even string them onto some gold ribbon or tinsel and make them into a beautiful Christmas garland. Lots of options, since you could make a dozen in about half an hour.

What you will need:

  • Red crepe paper
  • Scissors
  • String
  • Some gold ribbon, tinsel, or pipe cleaners

Optional:

  • Green wire and green floral tape to create a bouquet
  • Tinsel, twine, gold string to create a garland

This paper flower tutorial could not be easier. I’ve scoured the web looking for paper flower DIYs many times and have always been discouraged by the seemingly impossible and incredibly time consuming templates, countless individual petals, and amount of familiarity with the craft that seems to be necessary. Paper flowers are great because they’re supposed to help you stress less about your flowers. But what good is that if the tutorial is for only the crafting gods?

To start this super easy DIY, grab your red crepe paper. The stuff I got from CreateForLess was great because it was the perfect height, which eliminated a step (the need to trim my paper even more). Cut it in strips, about four inches wide. To make three flowers, cut eight strips.

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One of the beautiful things about this craft is that the edges of your strips do NOT need to be perfect. The strips just need to all be relatively the same size. After you’re done cutting your strips, stack them, like this:

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You want to stack them as evenly as possible. Now fold them into equal thirds:

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And cut along the creases so you have three stacks of four, all the same size.

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Now fold each of those stacks in half (hamburger way),

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And cut a petal shape out of each stack, from the folded side, so when you open it you’ll have two mirrored sides that look like petals. Do this for all stacks.

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Open and separate the stacks after you cut them so you have two pieces of paper in each set instead of four. Carefully twist each set in the center.

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Next, cut a small piece of string, yarn, twine, whatever you have lying around, and place two or three sets of petals in a sort of star shape on top of the string. Tie the string around the centers and cut the ends. Separate and “fluff” the petals to create the look of a poinsettia.

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Take your gold ribbon/pipe cleaner and tie it around the string. This step would probably be easier to do before you separate the petals, but whatever floats your boat.

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Repeat for all sets.

Paper Poinsettias

This DIY really could not be easier. I made these three flowers in about fifteen minutes. If you stacked more paper at once, you could make more flowers in a shorter amount of time, as long as you were careful to keep the petals somewhat uniform.

I attached the flowers to my gift wrapping with a simple loop of tape, just like I’d attach any bow. If you’d like to reuse your flowers, string some ribbon through the middle of your flower and tie it around the gift.

Paper Poinsettia Gift Topper

Happy crafting!

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