Date Nights & Paper Roses

As it happens, I love my husband's company.  He makes me laugh.  He makes me think.  And he's cute~*

We have a tradition of date nights-- 2 times a month we get to go out & do something just for us.  To be fair, we have the best jobs in the world that allow us to spend a great deal of time together & with the Things.  But most of those times we  are doing, well, that which needs to be done, if you follow my drift.  We go grocery shopping, we do laundry, we fix that leaky toilet-- & while he never fails to make those times memorable, they aren't exactly romantic!

To  make sure we get good couple time, we devised this little treat.  We each take 12 pieces of paper {this year we are using 4x6 scrapbook paper from Martha Stewart that I picked up at a bargain price a few months ago at TJ Maxx-- I tore 12 pieces in half to get the 24 notes needed}.  Then we write down 12 dates-- we try to keep things relatively inexpensive & easy to do {no surprise cruises LOL}.  Then we fold those cards in half {no spoilers}, put them in a container, and the 1st & 15th of every month, we draw a card & vuala!  Surprise date!

This year I decided to decorate a "Date Night Box" to hold the cards-- and I will be using several different crafting ideas to decorate the box which I will post here.  For today's craft, I'm going to demonstrate how to make paper roses.  I use them a lot-- they are great for decorating presents, or sprucing up generic household items {I used them in the guest room redo to dress up a mirror & I also used them to create the "O" in my JOY xmas project}.  For the purposes of our "Date Night Box," I used scrap book paper in colors that match our living room-- but you can use anything from construction paper to old books {I used a set of Disney Encyclopedias that were mine when I was younger to create the flowers for the JOY project, for example}.

 You will need: 

1. A simple 5 petal flower pattern-- I have two different sizes in the picture above, but will use the large pattern for the remainder of the demonstration.  Don't worry about perfection here, just a freehand flower is fine.
2. A pen to trace the pattern on to your paper.
3. Enough paper to cut out 3 flowers-- you can use different patterns, or all one color--whatever your fancy!
4. Good Scissors-- though perfect cutting isn't necessary, after all, flowers are not perfect in nature!
5. Because I was using cardstock, I used a glue gun-- but if you were using light weight paper double stick tape would do the trick!

• Trace and then cut out 3 flowers
• On one flower {purple in my pics} cut a slit to roughly the center of the flower
• On another flower {green in my pics} cut out two of the petals-- set the heart shape aside
• On the final flower {turquoise in my pics} cut out one petal-- set that petal aside

• Take the flower that has the slit cut {purple my pics} Overlap the petals on either side of the slit to create a "cone" and a four petaled flower.
• Glue/tape the two petals together
• Repeat with the other flowers overlapping petals to create conical flowers
• Do the same with the petals you had cut from the flowers {because they are considerably smaller, you may need to roll them around a pencil to get the shape}

 

• Using your pen, roll all of the edges on the flowers back to add dimension.  Flowers are not perfect, so don't worry if your rolls or cuts aren't either!

• Insert and glue/tape the flowers into one another-- you may need to cut off the tips of the cones to make them nest properly

• Depending on what you want to use them for, you can finish it off with ribbon or cut out some leaves-- since I'll be using it on our "Date Night Box", I used ribbon

And there you go!

I'll use this flower to decorate our Date Night Box, along with some other techniques that I will post later--