Paper rose is an ideal gift in case you forgot the special day and you are in hurry. This lovely rosebud is entirely made of paper with a little help of glue, though. Making this rose is also easy and only requires one sheet of red paper and one sheet of green paper, stationary found almost in every office. You will also need scissors to cut out the leaves and petals to assembly the rose. In case you need a whole bouquet of roses, just keep printing out the templates.
The red paper rose is made using two templates. The first template contains leaves and is to be printed on a green sheet of paper. This template actually gives two sets of leaves for two rosebuds. The second template contains petals and should be printed on red paper. If you are using a color printer, you may use white sheets of paper. With the template of color leaves you print ready-to-cut leaves on a single sheet of white paper. Likewise, use the template of color petals to print out ready-to-cut petals on blank paper.
Assembling the rose
Download the two different templates (picture 1). These templates are designed for A4 size paper. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print the templates. Use the two color templates for color printing on white paper.- Place one sheet of green paper and one sheet of red paper in the printer tray. Print out the templates one by one.
Cut out the green leaves along the dashed line. Carefully cut out the red petals along the dashed line accordingly and avoid cutting along the dotted line (picture 2).- Fold the leaves and petals along the dotted line and put glue on the back (picture 3).
Cut a short slot in each petal to separate the tabs. Fold the tabs along the dotted line.- Glue the tabs together so that same numbers are always facing each other leaving the greater number visible. The first small petal has a tab without number (set #2). The set number is indicated with a white number in a gray circle. This tab is left upwards and will later be the innermost part of the rosebud.
Carefully curl the small petals (sets #2 to #4) inwards. You may use a pencil to help curling the petal (picture 4).- Curl the large petals (sets #5 to #11) outwards. Use a pencil to help curling the petal.
- Assembly the inner part of the rose (3 small petals) by putting first glue on the base of set #2 and attaching the curled petal (set #3) inside the other one. Roll the petal tightly.
- Wrap the third petal (set #4) around the sets #2 and #3 and glue them together putting paste on the base. These three sets will make part A, the inner part of the rose.
Follow the same procedure with sets #5 to #11 and glue the tabs with same number together. Now curl the petals outwards (picture 5).- Place the inner part (part A) on the first large petal (set #5) and put glue on number 7 on the base. Firmly put the part A on the top of the base.
- Assembly the rose using sets #5 to #11 and put glue on the base of each set. Let the flower petals half overlap each other when assembling the rose.
Place two sets of leaves on the top of each other to form a crossing. Curl the top of the leaves downwards (picture 6).- Glue the rosebud on the top of the leaves.
Final words
Making a paper rose like the one described in this article is relatively easy. You only need a laser or inkjet printer with black or color ink, a few sheets of red and green paper, scissors and glue. This stationary is quite common in offices, so you should find required supplies with no problem. Alternatively you may use color templates for printing on white paper. Assembling the rose takes time while glue dries. You may want to finalize the creation with a stem through the rosebud. Now that you have made your lovely red paper rose it’s time to give it to your loved one. The Red Paper Rose templates by Matti Mattila are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial 1.0 Finland License.
Templates
- Leaves - print on green paper with black and white printer
- Petals - print on red paper with black and white printer
- Color leaves - print on white paper with color printer
- Color petals - print on white paper with color printer