Making or creating paper flowers has been a marvelous hobby of people of all ages from many generations before us, and hopefully many generations to come. There is an element of warmth you get after making a paper flower.

In this fast pace world we live in, taking the little bit of time to actually sit down and make a paper flower is both a stress reliever and a mind defogger. You can leave all your cares and worries from your place of employment behind and do something that is both relaxing and possibly useful for your next party.

There are only a handful of items that are needed for this project and they can all be found at the local hobby, or arts store. The first main supply is the crepe paper. It comes in single and double, depending on the number of flowers you are making. Scissors: 1 light weight pair to cut and shape the leaves or petals and a heavy pair for multiple layers of the crepe paper. Paste: the regular type with a hard brush. Tissue paper: This is used for creating all of the leaves. Also, you need a pencil, some florist tape, pins, wire, metal paper clips, and an artificial stamen.

Once you have all the items listed above, you can now begin to make your own personalized paper flower.

1. Start with 12-16 pieces of different sized, colored crepe paper. Stack all the papers in a neat pile and now use a pencil to draw the pattern, of your choice of a flower on the top sheet of paper in the pile.

2. Using the metal paper clip, fasten all the pieces of crepe paper together. Now, use the heavy scissors to cut out the pattern you made.

3. Arrange all the sheets of paper from largest to smallest in a pile making the largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top. With the pin, poke a hole in the middle of the petals of your flower.

4. Put all the petals together, starting at the bottom, to make a flower. Then put the wire into the whole in the center. You don't want the wire to slip out of the whole so twist one end. Now, where you stuck the wire use the florist tape to tape the petals here.

5. Now, choose your own design and make a leaf pattern. Use the green tissue paper and cut out the pattern with the light scissors.

6. Next, stick the leaves to the stem of the flower with the florist tape.

7. It's an optional feature, but you could add the artificial stamen to the middle of the flower.

*You can repeat this process and create as many different flowers as you desire.

Making paper flowers is a very inexpensive, and fairly easy hobby to do if you follow my instructions. Once you have mastered the main technique of paper flower making, you will want to make more detailed and larger creations and the possibilities will then be endless. Happy folding...