Hey there! Here are some basic tips for making your own dollhouse miniature paper flowers. You do not need to use my kits to follow along, but this was prepared with them in mind. I’m using my miniature succulents kit in these examples, which I found to be a good beginner “flower,” because you don’t have to deal with stems and other fiddly bits! Kits can be purchased on my Etsy here. I have lots of them planned/in the making, so stay tuned!
Supplies
Some supplies you might need to create your miniature paper plants (includes affiliate links):
- Laser-cut or punched flowers (or just plain paper if you’re going to try cutting them yourself!)
- Stems – I prefer paper-wrapped wire in 26-30 gauge for 1/12 scale plants.
- Acrylic paints – “craft” variety recommended, but I tend to use up whatever I have!
- Pointy tweezers
- Various stylus tools for shaping
- Foam block, felt, or something else relatively soft but firm to help shape the petals
- Needle or pin to poke a hole for the stem
- Wire cutters
- Clear-drying craft glue
- Flower pot/dirt/whatever you’re attaching them to!
Painting
If using sheets of laser-cut flowers, I like to start with the base painting first and add details after assembly. If using cut-out flowers, it’s easier to paint them after assembly.
- Place your sheet on something that won’t stick easily, like wax paper (or in my case, a binder divider).
- Carefully dab a small amount of paint onto your sheet with a soft bristle brush. No globs! You should almost be dry-brushing it on. I recommend craft paint because it’s thinner without being watery. If using artist acrylics, don’t water them down or they will warp the paper. Just use it very sparingly and layer as needed.
- Carefully peel the sheet off of your work surface before it is dry, so it doesn’t stick.
- Let Dry. Repeat on other side.
Separating
Start by popping the flowers out of the sheet. My kit flowers are designed with very small sprues, so you can just use a toothpick to poke at them. For sheets with larger sprues, you may need to use a craft knife or tiny scissors (I like embroidery scissors, like these!).
Shaping
- Use a stylus to shape the petals on a soft but firm surface, such as foam or thick felt.
- For best results, use a smaller stylus to shape individual petals, and a larger one to shape an entire flower as one piece.
- I find the tightest curl comes from starting at the outer edge of the petal and moving toward the center. This can be tricky with very long, skinny petals, though! If they’re breaking all over the place, try using a very large stylus to just shape the whole flower at once.
Assembly
Assembly varies depending on the type of flower! My examples here are succulents, but they’re similar to basic flowers.
- For a flower with a stem, you will want to poke a hole in the center. For tiny petals like these, make sure you don’t poke too big a hole, or they will break! I went through a few before I got it right, haha.
- Slide the petals on, and secure them at the tip with a dot of glue – similar to the way I did my hanging succulent here. I also added dots of glue down the stem to secure each “flower.”
- If your flower has a coloured center, you can paint it after it dries, or dip it in something like coloured sand or model-making “pollen” (I find the pollen to be too big for smaller 1:12 scale flowers). It’s also possible to dip it straight into paint instead of glue, but sometimes I don’t trust myself to not get it all over the petals! Haha.
Finishing
Wait for it to dry before painting details. Here, I have dry-brushed some pink on the tips of the echeveria for added realism.
Ta-da!
Arrange your pieces in your pot or garden of choice. I made a simple box out of wood strips, and filled it with chopped bits of air-dry clay to look like white rocks. Shown here with my miniature terrarium kit!
Quick video time-lapse shown below!