Paper Poppy - My How to!!!

Ok, so this is only my second post, and I have yet to tell you all about the voluntary work that I do, but today said work has led me to make a "paper poppy" which I thought I would write a little tutorial for, and post on here so you folks can see what I've been up to!

So first I guess I'd better tell you a little about the voluntary work, basically I run an Art workshop alongside a theatre group once a week, we take kids between the ages of 13 & 19, some of which are youth offenders, kids in foster care etc
At the moment I am leading the kids towards making all the props, scenery and costumes for the production that the theatre group are performing in July.
As part of getting them to think about making 3d structures, I have set a few small tasks like making small boxes, paper gift bags etc
The challenge for tomorrow is that the kids bring in a flower that they've made out of paper.......
Now, the kids never let me off so I always have to take part to.

So here is my paper poppy:

Sits nicely with my paint brushes!!

paper poppy

 And here is how I made it:

Things I used:

Equipment

Red crepe paper
Green florist wire
Green florist tape
Black Button
Card
Corrugated card
Glue gun
Circle templates
Scissors
Hole making device (I used my dremel)
Pencil

 Ok so here goes:

Step 1

Using card I made 2 petal templates, 1 small one for the inner petals and 1 for the larger outer petals
Now using the corrugated card I drew 3 circles the size of the button, 2 slightly smaller circles, and 2 slightly smaller again:

Templates

 Once I cut all these bits out I used my glue gun to create a stack with the card circles:

Circles stacked and glued

I then drilled a hole through this stack and threaded in my florist wire through, which I bent slightly and glued in place:

Wire threaded through and glued

Next I cut out my petals, I cut 3 smaller petals and 4 of the larger size
Now its important to lay the petals in line with the grain of the crepe paper so that it runs from the top to the bottom of the petal:

Remember to lay it on the grain!!

I then started to glue my petals around the edge of the cardboard stack, starting with the 3 smaller petals and over lapping them slightly as you go around:

Glue around the card stack

 Until I had them all glued into place:

All the petals are glued

Then I shaped my petals from the outside in, now to do this I gently stretched along the edges of my petals and stretched the centre area of the petal out, as shown on the diagram:

Stretch the crepe paper

 Each petal will start to take shape:

Petal taking shape

 Once I'd done all the petals I glued my button in the centre

All the petals have been shaped and the button is glued in

And to finish off I wrapped florist tape from the base of the flower down onto the stem:

Finished off with florists tape

Tah Dah!! All done!

Tah Dah!

I must say I'm pleased with the outcome, so much so I am off to reward myself with a nice cup of tea, and possibly an early easter egg!!
Until next time x