Hey there! Here are some tips for making my 1:12 scale miniature paper buttercup kit!
This kit is very simple to assemble. So, you can see my general info about assembling miniature paper flowers here, and I’ll offer a few kit-specific tips here!
Kits can be purchased here, and include a laser-cut sheet as shown below, some wire, and a square of foam or felt to help with shaping the petals.
Supplies
Supplies you will need in addition to your kit:
- Acrylic paints / paintbrush
- Pointy tweezers
- Small scissors (I like embroidery scissors)
- Mini stylus tools for shaping
- Wire cutters
- Clear-drying craft glue
- Flower pot/dirt/whatever you’re attaching them to
Flowers
First, you will want to paint your sheet. Apply paint sparingly and layer it thinly as needed. Don’t glop it on, or you’ll have a bad time. For basic flower tips/photos, see here!
Next, you will punch the flowers out of the sheet and begin shaping them.
- Pic 1/2: Buttercups are pretty basic in shape. Just use a tiny stylus or toothpick and press in a circular motion until it becomes a little cup!
- Pic 3: Add a dot of glue to your stem and use it to pick up the flower.
Leaves
- Pic 1: For the leaves, simply use your stylus or toothpick to draw a line down the center of the leaf.
- Pic 2: Put a dot of glue at the bottom of the leaf, and stick it to the stem.
- Pic 3: For the center of the flower, you have a few options. I put a dot of glue in the center and dipped my flowers into some yellow sand (I found this to not be quite small enough, but worked okay). You can also dip it into yellow chalk. Or, you can put a dot of glue and then paint it yellow or light green afterward. (Most paint tends to flatten when dry, so you may want to add glue to get that 3D look)
“Advanced” option
- If you look at photos of buttercups, you’ll notice that the stems usually have some smaller stems branching off from the main stem. While it’s not totally necessary to get a nice-looking field of flowers at this scale, I thought I would experiment a little with this.
- To get this effect, I stripped the paper off of the top wire, and stuck it to the other with as small a dot of glue as I could (it dries SO fast at that size!). After this dried, I painted over both with green paint. As you can see, the un-coated wire looks more to scale – an added bonus! The wire I include in my kit is the smallest coated wire available, but feel free to play around if you want that added touch of realism!
Thank you!
Thanks for checking out my little tutorial. Feel free to let me know if this was helpful, or if it was missing something! I always welcome constructive feedback.