Tip & Technique: Layered, Strip Flower

I saw this lovely fabric flower on Rebecca Sower's blog, but since I'm a little fabric/sewing challenged, I thought I would attempt one made from paper.

First, I used scraps of paper leftover from some of my other layouts from the Sonoma County kit. I cut them into strips. They were roughly 1" wide, but I was particular about it. Some of them were 12" long, others were shorter.

I put a dab of adhesive on the ends and started folding them over. I did multiple "petals" from each strip. I really didn't have a rhyme or reason, just started folding.

Then I cut a rough circle from some coordinating patterned paper...

and sorted the folded strips by size, largest to smallest.

Then, using my trusty glue gun, I started adhering down the largest strips to the circle.

I kept adding lots o' hot glue and adding to the layers, working inward and smaller.

It gets nice and fluffy! You can squish it down some if you don't want it so big.

I added some more gobs of glue in the center of the flower and wedged in the smallest pieces.

I spritzed it with some Shimmerz (but I couldn't get it to pick up in the picture! Bad me!)

I had this flower sign from the Dollar Store, so I covered it up with coordinating papers from the kit...

and jazzed it up with some other pieces from the kit, slapped that flower on there, and then had a lovely new Spring sign for my front door!

You could make this flower much, much smaller if you did smaller and less strips. I want to make some more for my cards & scrapbook layouts. :)