wallpaper flowers

I thought it would be fun (and challenging!) to do something different for the other vase that my cousin Widya has. 

Seeing the never-ending stacks of wallpaper scraps in my studio (yes, i keep all of them!) i finally got to realize the idea of making flowers from wallpaper. Funny how creativity flows, eh?

I made roses and buttercups based on these tutorials (credits due to them!), but tweaked it a little to make it easier for me.

The only difficulty i had with this project however was the arrangement. Long vases were trickier as the flowers need to balance the solid shape of the vase. 

I finally added a hydrangea pomander ball as a topper and some paper leaves on both sides to balance things out. The arrangement now consists of 7 roses, 4 buttercups, 2 leaves and 1 hydrangea ball *phew*.

I hope bet she likes it.



... just kidding!

rainbow bouquet

My infatuation for anything multicolored has resulted in a rainbow bouquet.

I made this bouquet for my cousin, Widya, who had been an owner of two empty vases for too long. 

The width of the peonies makes a perfect fit for short but stubby vases, and i added some artificial  leaves with berries to fill in the empty space between the flowers.

What's so good about this rainbow bouquet is the different looks you get every time you turn the vase around. I find myself staring at it several times a day and never get bored.

Oh, the possibilities of having rainbow bouquets of roses and every other flower now fills my mind. I'm gonna show you what i'm gonna do with another vase of her soon! 

rainbow paper peonies bouquet

vena's bouquet

Four months ago, my friend, Vena, asked me to make a paper flower bouquet for her wedding in February. 

She will be having THREE wedding parties (Jakarta, Malang and Sydney) and wanted the bouquet to be the same one in all the three parties.

I'd be lying if i said i was confident about her request. 

I've never made a single paper flower before, but i was touched with how much she trusted me of being able to make it. Google led me to some favorite tutorials and over time i ended up having fun making different types of flowers (as you can see here). The most time-consuming part would be making the petals, since each petal is individually shaped and pleated before being attached to the stem.

 

For Vena, she specifically requested for peonies. Pink peonies. 

For the bride's bouquet, bridesmaids' corsages and the groom's boutonniere. 

When she picked up her flowers today, i was relieved to find out that she and her mum were exceptionally pleased. They both LOVE the flowers. She also text-ed me saying she didn't want to take them off of her hands and her mum wore the corsage straightaway in the car after leaving my place.
 

Thank you Vena for this honor.

Can't wait to see you on your D-day and have a blessed and wonderful married life ahead in Sydney!  :') 

  

 paper peonies bouquet

the bouquet, boutonniere & 2 wrist corsages

close-up on the flowers

creative rut

You know that feeling where you just feel numb creatively? 

Well, these last few weeks, i'd been stuck in one. 

This is the first time it lasted more than three days, and believe me i did not enjoy it one single bit.

During such time i thought it would be a good time to try my hands on other projects. So i experimented making paper flowers out of recycled paper... 

The tutorials are found here, here and here.

peony

rose

buttercup

...and some other more from fabric.

I ended up making 200pcs of fabric flower corsages (with covered buttons) for my auntie who ordered them for her shoes. She runs a wholesale shoe shop here in Jakarta and regularly works with local craftsmen who make them for her.

 

Now, i was definitely happy with the opportunity to take my mind off of Paperpleased for a while. But with the absence of my second assistant, it took me & my first assistant the whole week to make the 200pcs (!). By the third day, i was already sewing and reading at the same time, listening to TED.com while gluing the flowers, etc, simply because i couldn't stand having a mind-numbing activity. 

Before we (almost) finished it, i had missed the joy of working with paper in my hands so much that i tried out a new design in the middle of the night. 

In the end, i guess we can only be reminded that being creative is a process. It takes time but it definitely can be learned by everyone (certainly so in my case). You might just surprise yourself along the way, and the result is always worth it. My sister uses the term "breaking the glass" and i couldn't agree more :)

How about you? Do you have any tips on breaking (invisible) glasses around you?