Paper craft · Growing · about 30 minutes
Accordion Paper Flower
Uses scissors · Uses glue · Adult help suggested
- Strip of pink (or any color) paper for the flower, 279 x 108 mm (11 x 4.25 in)
- Half sheet of green paper for the stem, 140 x 216 mm (5.5 x 8.5 in)
- Printed template for the center, leaf and band, 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in (Letter) or A4)
- Blunt-tip scissors
- Glue stick
- Crayons or markers (if the template is printed on white paper)
For the grown-up: Help cut the folded stack: it is thick. Rolling a tight stem is easier if an adult starts the roll.
Safety: Use blunt-tip scissors and cut away from your fingers.
Blue dashes: valley fold (toward you). Pink dash-dot: mountain fold (away from you). Thick line with scissors: cut. Yellow: glue.
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Start. Lay the pink strip down long and flat, colored side up.
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1. Valley fold: Fold the left end over by about 2 cm (one finger wide) and press it flat.
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2. 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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3. Cut: Hold the folded stack tight. Cut both ends into a round shape, like the top of a thumb. These are the petal edges.
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4. 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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5. Open: Gently spread the pleats open above and below the band, until the two halves make a circle.
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6. 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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7. Cut: Cut out the yellow center and the leaf from the template.
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8. Glue: Glue the yellow center onto the middle of the flower, over the band.
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9. Roll: Roll the green half sheet tightly from one long side into a thin stick. Glue the last edge down.
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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.
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.