Carnations are a classic symbol of love and admiration, making them perfect for gifts, decorations, or a fun craft project. Making these lovely paper carnations is super easy! Just grab a napkin, some thread and a piece of green paper. No napkins? No problem—you can use kitchen roll or even toilet paper instead!
Open your napkin out, cut it in half from side to side and put one half aside to make a second flower with. Cut the other piece in half again along its length and put one half exactly on top of the other.
If you are using kitchen roll, you need one piece or a two-piece length. Cut it in half end to end and put one half on top of the other.
If you are using toilet paper, you need a 3 or 4-piece length which you use as it is, without cutting it in half.
Holding the two pieces together, fold one end over approximately 1.5cm. Flip the whole thing over sideways and fold it in the same direction again on the other side. Continue flipping and folding, as you would to make a fan, until you get to the end. You should now have a concertina of folded paper. You can see how the folds should look in the photos above, where I prefolded the paper.
Tie the folded concertina in the middle with thread. At this point, you can shape the ends by rounding off the corners with scissors as shown, or cutting an M-shaped zigzag. Or you can leave them as they are.
Open out one side of the concertina, then begin to separate the layers from each other. First you will be separating the two pieces of napkin from each other, then you need to separate the layers of each piece of napkin. Most napkins are 2-ply, so they have two layers to separate, but some can be 3-ply.
Repeat this separation on the other side of the flower, then find the knot where you tied the thread around the middle. This will be the back of the flower, so fluff up the layers towards the other side to make your carnation.
Using a large needle or kebab stick, roll the green paper up on a slight diagonal, as tightly as possible and glue the end in place to make a stem. Make 4 cuts into the end of it and open these out like a star then glue them onto the back of the flower.
To finish, cut out two long, thin green leaves and glue them onto the stem.
These two white flowers were made from kitchen roll and look just as good as the napkin flowers. After tying the thread around the folded napkin, the first had no trimming done, while the second had an M-shaped zigzag cut from the ends. Experiment with different papers, colours, and trimmings to see what you can create. And please email us a photo of the results.
