"Ceramic" Paper Roses - The Scrap Shoppe

This tutorial for making faux ceramic roses from paper has been my #1 blog post for the longest time. It was only recently usurped by my picture frame hanging tip (which if you haven’t checked out, you really should!).

Originally posted 5/30/2010

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These rolled roses originally started out as plain red cardstock. Now they have an almost ceramic look to them. Let me show you how I made them!

1. Start with a couple of pieces of cardstock (I only ended up needing one for all of these flowers, but I grabbed a 2nd piece just to be sure).

2. Soak the cardstock, one sheet at a time, under running water. Be sure and wet both sides of the cardstock. 3. Wad each piece of cardstock up into a ball. You’re going to want it very rumpled so you will need to wad it up, open it, and wad it up again several times. Just be careful that you don’t rip the paper. 4. Lay the cardstock out flat and allow it to dry. I soaked mine before going to bed and let it dry on the kitchen counter overnight. If you’re slightly more impatient you can take a hairdryer to it. From here I tried two different techniques to get the “ceramic” look for the roses. Here is the technique for the single rose.

5. From a roughly 5″x5″ square of the dried cardstock, cut out a circle. From the circle cut out a spiral. I like to cut my spirals in a wavy fashion to give the final rose a more realistic look.

6. Start with the outermost part of the spiral and start rolling it between your fingers. Contine you to roll until you get to the center of the spiral.

7. Take the center of the spiral and use some adhesive to glue the base to the rest of the rose so it acts as the base of your flower.

8. A pretty little rose!

9. Ink the edges of the rose with a contrasting color. This just makes the rose more realistic so its not uniform in color. You can skip this step if you would rather.

10. Apply a somewhat thick coat of Mod Podge to the rose with a sponge brush. Not too thick though! If its too thick the glue with dry white instead of clear (especially between the petals).

11. Turn the rose over after the front dries and appy more Mod Podge to the back of the rose.

12. Apply a pin, bobby pin, clip, or whatever you like to the back of the rose.

Note: This starts the 2nd “ceramic” technique. (I think I actually like this one better.)

13. Cut three different size squares from the wrinkled cardstock. Apply Mod Podge to each square. Once the front dries, flip it over and apply again to the back.

14. Cut out spirals as before.

15. Once again, start with the outside of the spiral and start rolling the rose.

16. The roses for this set of 3 flowers are more tightly rolled so they can be placed snugly next to one another.

17. Glue the back of the roses as before.

18. Ink the roses at this step if you are so inclined.

19. Apply another coat of Mod Podge just to get the flowers nice and shiny!

20. Line the 3 flowers up in a row and adhere a strip of the red cardstock to the back of the flowers. Apply a small amount of adhesive between each flower to glue them to each other also just to be sure there is no flopping around. Add a pin, bobby pin, or whatever suits your fancy.

The final single rose. I glued some large silver beads to the center.

The final set of 3 roses. I didn’t add anything to the center of them since they are wrapped so tightly. And I think they look just as good without the extra embellishment.

Its may be difficult to tell from the photos, but these roses have a great shine to them. And the Mod Podge also makes them very stiff so they also almost feel like they could be ceramic. The wrinkled paper and the waviness of the spiral really give them a realistic look!

So, what to do with these fun new flowers?

Well, since they are pinbacks I can add them to any outfit as a brooch, put them on a belt, add them to a headband…

Or thread them through the chain of my DIY go-to necklace! I’m loving this look!

Other than the time it took the cardstock and Mod Podge to dry (which was really only a few minutes), this was a pretty quick project.

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Desperate Houselife

Monday 22nd of August 2011

Well a beautiful necklace along the lines of the one you have designed, that will not wilt in the rain (lol), and I have some pretty paper flowers from the scrapbooking department I was thinking of putting on bobby pins, but I wanted to somehow water proof them first, for the same reason. Think that is the best way to go?

Thanks for the input. I REALLY love that necklace! :)

Michele {The Scrap Shoppe}

Thursday 18th of August 2011

@Desperate Houselife - I think if you used Outdoor Mod Podge and made sure to get it in all of the nicks and crannies then it should be watertight. Now you've got me curious as to what you're planning to do! :)

Wednesday 17th of August 2011

Beautiful! Quick question... does sealing with Mod Podge make it waterproof?

Siobhan aka Kiwivandal

Tuesday 16th of August 2011

pretty! Thank you for your tutorial!

Tammy

I love this! It reminds me of the flowers we made sealing them with embossing powder. I think this might have given me some new ideas :)