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Hand holding completed Book Page Rose made from sheet music.
Print Recipe

DIY Easy Book Page Roses for Mom (Upcycle Old Paper)

Give mom a bouquet of beautiful DIY Easy Book Page Roses for Mother's Day. Upcycle old paper and make a gift of love that will last.
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Total Time20 minutes
Course: Paper Craft
Cuisine: Craft
Keyword: book page flowers diy, book page flowers easy, book page paper roses, book page rose wreath, book page roses, book page roses diy, book roses diy, DIY book page roses, easter craft for kids, family activity, how do you turn a book page into a flower?, how to make paper roses from books, make paper roses from book pges, Mother's Day craft ideas, mother's day gift, paper roses made from book pages, roses from book pages, roses made out of book pages
Servings: 1 book page rose (paper flower)
Author: Shelly
Cost: $1

Equipment

  • Glue- hot glue gun and hot glue or tacky glue
  • Scissors

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Each flower will take four squares of paper that are the same size. You can make a square template out of cardboard or fold your paper up into a triangle and then cut around it, whatever is the easiest way for you. 
    You can make them with any size squares but it is easier to learn on a larger size.
    I made a template that was 4.5 by 4.5 inches in size for this tutorial and drew around the template on one page of the book.
    Make 4 squares of paper from your old book pages.
  • Fold each square into small triangles by triangle folding them three times. Then cut off about ¼th inch off the pointed end of the triangle (the tip that is joining the two folded edges of the triangle).
    Hold the tip of the triangle you just clipped and set it down in front of you.
  • On the side of the triangle that is opposite the trimmed tip, draw a curved line that makes the piece look like an ice cream cone.
    Draw the same curved line on all four triangles.
    Cut the top unfolded edge of each folded piece on the lines you drew.
  • Open the first folded triangle. It has the shape of a flower with 8 petals and a cut out center. 
    Take your scissors and cut out one petal shape, cutting on the folds. Set the 7-petal piece and the 1-petal piece to the side.
    Open the second triangle and cut out a two-petal section (two adjoining petals). Set the two pieces to the side.
    Open the third triangle and cut out a three-petal section.
    And you guessed it…open the fourth square and cut it into two four-petal sections. You will only need one of the four-petal pieces so throw the second away or save it to make another book page rose.  
    Line up the sections in order from one petal to seven petal sections.
  • Start with the largest section and glue the two edges of the petal section together so that it makes a ring. 
    Do this with each petal section. They get smaller and smaller in diameter as you get less and less petals! 
    It helps a bit to roll the 1 and 2 petal sections around a toothpick or paint brush handle before trying to glue them as they are so small. 
    Note: You can use either tacky glue or a hot glue gun and hot glue (if using hot glue be very careful not to burn fingers as you form the petal sections).
  • Take the largest piece, the 7-petal section, and put glue around the center hole. Place the 6-petal section down into the glue and hold in place to set the glue.
    Line up the holes in the bottom of the two sections and put the petals of the sections in different directions. This helps it look more like a real rose shape.
    Continue this process with each of the 5 largest sections, gluing and nestling the next smaller petal section inside the last.
  • With the last two sections, add glue to the bottom of the one-petal section and slide it into the two-petal section.
    Add glue down the bottom half of the two-petal section and slide it into the center of the rose. It will slide slightly down through the hole in the larger sections. So the point of these two sections will kind of stick out the bottom of the other sections.
    This is what you want as that makes the center of the rose slightly lower than the larger petal rings instead of sticking out. This looks more natural.
    This makes the middle of the paper page rose!
  • With the last two sections, add a little glue to the bottom of the one-petal section and slide it into the two-petal section.
    Add glue down the bottom half of the two-petal section and slide it into the center of the rose and it will slide slightly down through the larger sections. This makes the middle of the DIY book page roses!
    If the hole in the bottom of the first 5 sections isn’t large enough for the last 2 sections to slip down into then cut it out a bit. The bottom of these two sections should slip through about ¼th inch.
    Curl the petals of the larger rings of petals using a toothpick or small paint brush handle. Do this by wrapping the outer edge of the rose petals back over the rounded object. You just want a gentle curve back.
  • ​Glue on small seed, crystal, or pearl beads, sprinkled glitter, add small sprays of paint, etc. for decoration as desired. I just leave mine plain but a bit of bling is always pretty.
    If you would like you can leave the flower like this (without a stem) and use it in a variety of ways.
  • There are several ways to make a stem for your book page roses.
    You could use a thin wooden dowel or a heavy wire to slip into the bottom center of the rose. 
    I chose to use a dowel and like the natural color of the wood. 
    Just add a little bit of glue to the dowel (or end of the wire) and slip it into the small hole in the center of the rose from the bottom side. You may need to add a piece of tape to secure it.
    Another option for a stem is a straw. If using a straw for a stem, twist the end of the tip on the back of the rose. Add a bit of glue and push it down into the end of the straw. You could add some tape to this as well if that doesn’t hold firmly.
    Wrap the straw or the dowel in floral tape or long strips of paper cut from your book pages if you want to cover the color of the straw up. This would also work for the dowel or wire stem.
  • Lastly, you can also cut some leaves and glue them to the stems. The bouquet looks fuller that way.
    Don’t they look so pretty?

Video

Notes

It is nice to have the print cover the square as much as possible so you can see these 4 squares were cut from the center of a book page.
For younger kids you may want to use the tacky glue.
I made several book page roses in a variety of sizes for a bouquet. Make a smaller rose with a smaller square pieces of your book paper. 
It also looks nice to make a couple roses with only the smaller rings. This makes it look like a rose bud.