How to Make Vintage Paper Roses

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Over the weekend, we took another trip to our favorite antique show/flea market in Round Top and we came home with another truckload of goodies!

Some of my favorite finds were vintage books that I picked up for $2.50 each and a milk glass vase that I found for $5.

I have a few ideas of things to make with the pages from these vintage books, but I was most excited to make a bouquet of paper roses for our bookshelf. (I also made bookish Christmas ornaments with some of the paper!)

How to make paper flowers from old vintage books.

There are different tutorials available online and several different kinds of flowers that you can make, but I was most drawn to paper roses.

I tried a couple of different tutorials and techniques before settling on this one. The first rose took me almost an hour to make, but by the 4th or 5th flower, I was done in 12 minutes.

Here’s how I made these beautiful paper roses.

How to make paper roses. — *(Before adding greenery*.)

These DIY paper roses are the perfect addition to any bookshelf. — *(After adding greenery to cover the stems.)*

Gather Your Supplies

These paper flowers are pretty inexpensive to make. Here’s what you’ll need:

vintage book paper

Supplies needed to make paper roses. — *(The supplies.)*

Vintage 1955 Readers Digest collection of short stories. — *(The book I used was a 1955 Reader’s Digest collection of stories.)*

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Prep the Pages

The first step to making paper roses is to prep the paper. Which is pretty easy.

Simply tear 4 pages out of the book and cut it into squares.

**Pro Tip** Make sure the squares are at least 4 inches across. Anything smaller would be really hard to fold and roll.

**Pro Tip 2** Instead of cutting the top or bottom of the page (like I did) cut the square in the center of the page so the empty top or bottom margins aren’t showing.

Step 1 in making paper roses is to cut your vintage book pages into squares. — *(4 squares)*

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Make the Folds

Next, it’s time to make the folds.

Fold the square in half to make a triangle. Then fold it again. And then fold it again.

Consequently, you will fold each square 3 times.

The second step to making paper roses is to fold your 4 pages into triangles. — *(Folds 0 to 3.)*

Cutting Corners

The next step is to cut a tiny hole in the center of the page. This is where the stem will be as the pages become a rose.

The corner you cut is the corner that has 2 folds going to it, with no loose edges.

Make sure you make a super tiny cut. If it’s too big, the flower will be too loose and wobbly on the stem.

*(Make sure you don’t cut off too much.)*

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Making Petal Shapes

This is the point where you see where you can kinda start to see how these little triangles might become a flower.

On the edge of the triangle that you cut for the hole, draw half of a heart with the tip of the heart being on the end that you snipped.

Cut the folded paper along that line.

As you can tell, I didn’t cut exactly on the line that I drew, but used it more as a guide.

Cut your pages into half hearts. — *(You should end up with 4 petals.)*

Make More Cuts

Unfold the pages.

From the first page, cut out one petal. Cut out the area from one crease to another, down to the hole in the center of the page. (Only cut one ‘hump’ at the top, not two!)

Then, cut out two petals from the second page. (Two ‘humps’ at the edge of the page.)

From the third page, cut out three petals. (Three ‘humps’.)

Finally, cut the fourth page in half. (You’ll have 4 ‘humps’.)

SAVE ALL OF THE CUT OUT PETALS! These will be used to make the center of the flower.

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Roll the Center of the Rose

Starting with the smallest petal that you cut out, roll it into a cone shape and glue the edge to secure it.

Likewise, roll the second and third smallest petals into cone shapes and glue them ‘shut’.

*(When you’re done you should have 3 little cones.)*

Create the Larger Petals

To create the larger petals, start with the half page.

Instead of rolling it like the smaller ones, overlap one whole petal over another and glue it together. So, instead of 4 petals, there will be 3.

Repeat this process with the other three pages.

As a result, you will end up with ‘cones’ with 3, 4, 5, and 6 petals on them.

(*These are all the pieces you’ll need to make a beautiful paper rose.)*

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Assemble the Rose

To begin assembling the paper rose, you first need to make a stem. Cut a long piece of wire and double it over.

Next, place a glue dot on the stem’s looped end and slide it into the smallest cone. Pinch it lightly until the glue sets.

*(This loop becomes the center of the flower, but you can’t see it.)*

Apply glue on the base of the cone near the stem. Then put the stem into the two-petal cone, slide it up to the attached cone, and pinch it lightly until the glue sets.

Continue this process with all of the cones, from smallest to largest.

Don’t forget to apply glue between each ‘cone’ to keep the flower secure.