Make a pop-up paper flower

Little girls and origami fans will love the intricacy of this pop-up paper flower. Plus when this paper craft is finished you can turn your pop-up paper flower into a homemade card that's perfect for a special personalised thank you note.

What you need:

• 2 x A4 sheets of paper (red)
• 2 x A4 sheets of paper (white)
• 1 x A4 sheet of thick paper (210gsm is ideal)
• Glue
• Scissors

Number of players:
1

Activity:

Watch the video to find out how to make your homemade pop-up flower.

Start by cutting each A4 sheet of red and white paper in half. Leave the thick paper intact, that will be your card framework.

Now you should have eight pieces of paper: four red, four white.

You are going to make a flower out of each piece – you'll need eight in total for your pop-up paper flower card.

To make the flowers:

Fold the piece of paper in half.

Then fold it in half again.

Place it on the table with the folded edges to your left and along the bottom of the paper.

Take the lower right hand corner and fold it up into a triangle to meet the left hand edge.

Now rotate your piece of paper 90 degrees to the left.  (The triangular folded edge should now be along the top).

Take the bottom left hand corner of the triangle shape and fold the top layer only, up to meet the upper diagonal edge.

You should now have a little folded kite shape on top of your bigger shape.

Cut the top of the kite shape into a curve on each side (just like in the video above).

Gently open your folded paper out. Voila! You have your first flower.

Now repeat the process eight times to make eight flowers.

To make the pop-up flower:

Take your sheet of thick paper and fold it in half to form a card shape.

Lay the first flower in the centre, with its centre line in line with the card's centre fold.

Place spots of glue in the centre of the flower and on the tip of each petal. Turn it over and glue it in place.

Now add the second flower. Glue it in the centre and only on every alternate petal that you didn't glue for the first flower (see video). Press the paper flower on top of the first.

Proceed with the third flower. Again, glue it in the centre and on every other alternate petal (the ones you didn't glue on on the second flower).

Keep gluing your flowers on like this, alternating petal glue, until you get to the eighth flower.

When you get to the final flower, cut it in half. Glue it down the centre line and on every other alternate petal (so the opposite petals you glued on the seventh flower).

Add a spot of the glue on the top of the flower, and then on every other alternate petal on the other side of the petal again.

Fold the card closed. Wait for the glue to dry.

When you open it out,  you should have a lovely pop-up flower in the centre of the card. 

Hints and tips:

• To make your pop-up paper flower into a thank you card, just write 'Thank you' on the front cover and put your message inside! Easy!
• You can make your flower any colour you want, you could even make it tri-coloured or more!
• Thanks to our sister company Kidspot Australia for creating the instructional video.