As a photographer, I love all things visually beautiful. This translates not only through my pictures over at Jen CYK Photography, but through many aspects of life. This happens to include one of my favorite things to make pretty…. packaging!

DIY PAPER FLOWERS FOR FABULOUS GIFT CARD WRAPPING

Now days, it seems like I give a lot of gift cards to the lovely people in my life. I love doing this, but I don’t love that it leaves me without something to wrap up and make glamorous. So I decided to come up with a simple way to dress up gift cards, make them look fancy, and most importantly make the person receiving the gift, feel just a little more special!

PAPER FLOWERS – A DIY TUTORIAL

By: Jen Hrycyk of Jen CYK Photography

Materials

• Five pages from an old book
• Button or some kind of jewel
• Scissors
• Hot glue gun & glue sticks
• Cute paper bag
• Bakers twine or ribbon
• Gift card

Step by Step instructions:

1. Fold your book pages in half, and cut half circles of different sizes. I freehand them, but you can certainly make a template out of cardboard. Make some smaller ones, some larger ones, and some in between. I usually make my flowers with 8-10 circles.

2. Unfold your circles and stack them on each other, largest circles on the bottom and smallest ones on top.

3. Put a dot of hot glue (in the center) on top of each circle, and stack them one by one as your are gluing. Push them down flat after you glue each one to confirm it’s secure.

4. Glue a button or jewel to the top of your flower.

5. Fold all sides of all of your circles. I mess around and try different things. I crinkle them, I bend them, I make a deep fold. I basically want it to rise instead of looking like flat paper. This is what creates our flower!

6. Insert your gift card into the bag and put a few rows of bakers twine or ribbon around all sides. Finish off with hot gluing your flower to the center of your package.

Most importantly, be creative! There’s no right or wrong answer, because no matter what you make, putting a little effort into someone’s gift makes them feel extra special. You can even try different variations of our flower. If you have scrapbook paper sitting around you can use that instead of book pages. Or how about an old Trader Joes bag? That would make a lovely flower too. The possibilities never end, so have fun and take that little step to make someone feel extra happy today!

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MATERIAL RESOURCES:

• Jewel: Local flea market
• Book Pages: From a book I had already read and was sitting around the house
• Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks: Michael’s
• Bakers Twine: Kurt Knudsen
• Polka Dot Bags: Kawaii Goodies