How to Make Paper Flower and Party Decorations

Chapter XV: General Directions for Using Crepe Paper

The directions which are essential in making flowers are numbered 1 to 15. The others are related, chiefly, to making Party Favors, Table Decorations, Fancy Dress Costumes, Trimming Halls, Homes, Booths and other Paper Handcrafts.
Crepe paper is unique because it has a grain. This grain (note the little crinkles running across the width of the paper) gives it a touch of magic. Because of it, you can make flowers with petals and leaves that are curved, cupped, and curled like Nature's own. Because of it, you can stretch and twist crepe paper into a raflia-like material that has a hundred-and-one uses in the field of handcrafts. Because of it, you can cut it into curly and straight fringe, you can twist it into corkscrew spirals--you can manipulate it to serve in scores of different ways to decorate halls, booths, costumes, etc.
There are two kinds of crepe paper: single and Duplex. Duplex is made of two layers of single, sometimes each layer a different color. It's a big help in making some Bowers, but if you can't get it, you can always make your own by pasting two layers of single together. The various articles in this book calling for "crepe paper," are to be made of single crepe, unless the directions specifically require Duplex. Only a few do.
General Direction # 1
How to Cut a Strip of Crepe Paper
Slip the crepe paper from its packet the required width and cut across the paper through all layers (Fig. 1). You'll need fairly heavy sharp shears and a little muscle.
To make sure that your strip is an even width, use the edge of the packet as a guide.
Never forget: When directions say "cut a strip of crepe paper" you cut it across the grain as just described.

General Direction # 2
How to Cut Straight Fringe
Cut a strip across the grain. Open it up. If you want to make fine fringe, stretch the strip as much as it will stretch. If you want to make coarse fringe, stretch it just a little. Fold and refold the strip to not more than eight layers. Slash along one edge of the paper stopping as a rule in
Bower making about 1/4 to l/2-inch short of the opposite edge (Fig. 2). When you've done that you've cut your paper with the grain, and you've got straight fringe which is used a lot for flower centers.
General Direction # 3
How to Flute Petals
These directions apply to other edges as well as petals. Hold the top of the petal (Fig. 3). Bring the right hand toward you, stretching the crepe over your left thumb. Make the next flute in the same way, taking care not to crush the first one. A fluted or slightly ruffled edge looks rather like a fluted pie crust.

General Direction # 4
How to Cup a Petal
Hold the petal (Fig. 4). Then slowly, evenly, stretch its width, pushing it out into shape. Cupping a petal gives it a cup-like curve. Many flowers have petals with such curves. The rose is one. The step-by-step directions under "Roses" in Chapter I tell you where to place the cupping, high on the petal, in its center, or at its base. They also tell you whether to cup the petals deeply or just slightly.

General Direction # 5
How to Curl a Petal
With scissors. With the petal held as illustrated (Fig. 5), your thumb holding the crepe over the scissors blade, draw the blade up to the edge of the petal. This is a stroking gesture that you can repeat until the petal is curled a little or a lot.
With a knitting needle (Fig. 6). Slant your needle on the edge of the petal. Roll the petal over it to just beyond the petal's center tip. Pull your needle out.

To crush and curl a petal. Proceed as in the preceding direction. Don't pull the needle out. Crush the roll of crepe paper by pushing it from each end to the center (Fig. 7).

General Direction # 6
How to Tie Petals Together with Spool Wire
With one wire. Cut off the amount of wire needed. It's usually about 8- inches, but the directions for making each flower tell exactly how much. Fold the wire in two (Fig. 8). Place the flower in the hairpin curve. Twist the wires together as tightly and as dose to the flower as possible. Cut off the surplus crepe at the base either straight or in points. Bring the wire ends down on opposite sides of the flower's base, and twist them together underneath it (Fig. 9).

With two wires. Tie the second one right over the first; bring the two ends down on opposite sides from the first two. Twist all together under the flower (Fig. 10). Two wires are used like that sometimes on flowers that have especially large, heavy heads.
General Direction # 7
How to Wrap Stems or Wires
Cut a strip 1 of crepe paper the width stated in the step-by-step directions. It's often l/2-inch. mush the base of the flower lightly with paste. Wrap one end of the snip around the base twice. Stretching the strip diagonally down toward the stem. Holding the stem and strip in the position sketched (Fig. 11), turn the stem with the right hand at the same time stretching and guiding the strip with the left one. Wrap the entire stem diagonally downward. At the end, paste the strip down and cut off the surplus.
When a doubled strip is called for, cut the strip, then fold it along the center length--that is, across the grain. Double strips are used sometimes to make the stems thicker quickly.
Note of cheer: this wrapping business consists actually, as you'll discover, in twirling the stem as you wrap it. It's done in a jiffy.
To wrap any article around and around with crepe paper, cut a strip.1 Open it up and stretch it around and around the article, pasting it down at the start and end and--if necessary--here and there besides.

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