Paper craft

Accordion Paper Flower

Growing (level 3 of 5)
30 min
10 steps
Ages 6–11 (a guide, not a rule)

Uses scissors
Uses glue
Adult help suggested

Start Making Print with template

Accordion folding (back and forth, like a fan) turns one strip of paper into a round flower with 24 pleats. Rounding the ends of the folded stack before you open it gives every pleat a soft petal edge. A yellow center, a rolled paper stem and a leaf finish it. Make several in different colors for a bunch.

Before you start

You need

Strip of pink (or any color) paper for the flower, 279 x 108 mm (11 x 4.25 in). Half of a Letter sheet cut the long way (half of an A4 sheet, 297 x 105 mm, works too).
Half sheet of green paper for the stem, 140 x 216 mm (5.5 x 8.5 in). Half of a Letter or A4 sheet.
Printed template for the center, leaf and band, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4). Print it on colored paper, or color the pieces in before cutting.
Blunt-tip scissors
Glue stick
Crayons or markers (if the template is printed on white paper)

Decorating (optional): Draw dots on the yellow center, or color the petal edges a darker shade.

No strip of pink (or any color) paper for the flower? Any thin paper pleats well; gift wrap or old magazine pages make patterned flowers. Use a straight stick from the garden instead of the rolled paper stem.

For the grown-up: Help cut the folded stack: it is thick. Rolling a tight stem is easier if an adult starts the roll.

Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.

How to place the paper before the first step — **Your paper:** Lay the pink strip down long and flat, colored side up.

Valley fold: blue dashes. Fold toward you, like a valley.
Cut: a thick solid line with scissors.
Glue: a yellow area marked "glue".

Step by step

Each step shows what to do (left) and how it should look after (right).

Do this

Result

Step 1 of 10 Valley fold Fold the left end over by about 2 cm (one finger wide) and press it flat.
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Result

Step 2 of 10 Valley fold Turn the strip over and fold the folded part over again, the same width. Keep turning and folding to the end of the strip.
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Result

Step 3 of 10 Cut Hold the folded stack tight. Cut both ends into a round shape, like the top of a thumb. These are the petal edges. (The folded stack, drawn larger.)
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Result

Step 4 of 10 Glue Cut out the band from the template. Pinch the middle of the stack, wrap the band around it and glue the band's end down.
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Result

Step 5 of 10 Open Gently spread the pleats open above and below the band, until the two halves make a circle.
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Result

Step 6 of 10 Glue Glue the two places where the halves meet, on the left and on the right, so the circle stays closed.
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Result

Step 7 of 10 Cut Cut out the yellow center and the leaf from the template. (The template sheet with the center and the leaf (already colored).)
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Result

Step 8 of 10 Glue Glue the yellow center onto the middle of the flower, over the band. (Back to the flower.)
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Result

Step 9 of 10 Roll Roll the green half sheet tightly from one long side into a thin stick. Glue the last edge down. (A new piece: the green half sheet for the stem.)
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Result

Step 10 of 10 Put together Glue the top of the stem to the band on the back of the flower, and glue the leaf to the stem. (All the parts together.)

A pink pleated paper flower with rounded petal edges and a yellow center on a green rolled-paper stem with a leaf.

You made it!

Yours may look a little different. That is part of making things by hand.

Print the steps

Template

Print the template at 100% (Actual size), not "Fit to page". Then measure the check bar with a ruler: it must be 5 cm (2 in) long.

Flower center, leaf and band · 150 × 80 mm. Center circle 40 mm, leaf 70 mm long, band 80 x 12 mm. Color the center yellow and the leaf and band green, or print on colored paper. Print at 100%.

Print the template

If something goes wrong

The pleats are uneven and the flower looks lopsided.

Line each new fold up with the edge of the stack before you press it, so every pleat is the same width.

The circle will not close.

Spread every pleat open a little more, then glue only the last pleats on each side together.

The stem bends.

Roll it tighter, or roll two sheets together for a thicker stem.

Helpful hints

Press each pleat with your fingernail: crisp pleats make a neat circle.
Thinner paper makes more, finer pleats.

An original PlayOwl project.