Miniature 1:12 scale delphinium tutorial

Master mini flower maker, Tallulah Belle, has shared some very useful tips about making paper flowers in the comments section -- especially about forming the flowers, glues and gluing techniques! She also regularly shares great information on her blog :) Thanks, Tallulah Belle!

Here's what you need:

1. a sheet of paper (I used ordinary pink copier paper).  Delphiniums tend to be pink, blue (both pale and deep), purple and white.
2. glue (I used Aleen's Clear Gel Tacky Glue because I'm a glue freak and happen to have it around, but white glue would work fine)
3. tweezers (I couldn't find my needle nose tweezers, but they're the best and most precise)
4. an eraser or mouse pad -- something with enough "give" in it that it will let you shape the flower
5. an embossing stylus or empty ballpoint pen (biro)
6. 1/8" hole punch (that's about 3 mm) -- if you have a 1/8" flower or star punch that would be ideal, but the plain circular hole punch makes a pretty good delphinium :)
7. NOT SHOWN -- green florist's wire, fairly fine
8. NOT SHOWN -- bugle beads -- small tube beads -- clear, dark green or the colour of your flower
9. NOT SHOWN -- either a maple leaf punch (about half an inch wide) or be prepared to cut a few  leaves by hand :)
10. NOT SHOWN -- dark green paper, or paper painted dark green

I painted my paper with acrylic paint -- a slightly darker pink and a slightly lighter pink.  I could have make my painting more bold and contrasting.  Or I could have skipped it entirely :)

Punch out some holes.  I didn't count how many I used -- 30?  something like that.  I'll count next time :)

Shape each little flower on the eraser with the stylus or pen.  You want to press the stylus into the centre of the paper circle so that it cups up.  You could make tighter cups for the top of the delphinium and looser ones for the bottom, for a touch of rigorous realism :)

Ah!  Here's the wire and the bugle beads!  I used a piece of wire about three inches long, and glued five bugle beads on it.  You can vary the number of beads you add from four to five -- it will keep your delphiniums from being too uniform.  Let this dry.

Start applying the little florets to the stem.  You can either dip each floret in your glue as you go, or smear glue on the top part of the stem and just press the florets into it.  I tend to be a dipper.

Work from the top down, row by row.   You can jiggle the florets around quite a bit while the glue is still wet.

At some point you want to add florets up at the top.  If you leave a little wire sticking up at the very top, above the top bead, you can add florets so they taper up to a point.  Very realistic :)

Punch a few dark green maple leaves (these were out of mulberry paper).  Mess with them a little on your eraser with your stylus so that they curve a bit.



Glue them in place underneath the flower.  This is absolutely the hardest part of making this flower -- getting the damned leaves to stick in place!

After having made a bouquet's worth of these, I think I'd like to try adding some extra details.  Some delphiniums have a contrasting centre to each small floret -- these seem to be either white or black.  (I've just learned that, in delphinium circles, these contrasting centres are called a "bee".  I learn something new every day :)  You could add a spot of contrast to each tiny circle before you cup them into florets, or you might try adding them to the finished flowers.