To make the best paper flowers you can, understanding the fundamentals is key. Think about choosing the right weight of crepe paper. One aspect that often gets overlooked is color theory.

Picking the right colors becomes particularly important when using color implements on colored crepe, or when you start to arrange your blooms and foliage together. 

There are endless color possibilities and combinations, as well as personal tastes and trends to account for. So where do you begin? Understanding color theory can give you the fundamentals you need.

If you feel a little lost when it comes to color theory, look no further. Here is your guide to understanding basic color theory.

What Is Color Theory?

Color theory combines the best of art and science to give us a basic set of principles when it comes to colors. This helps us know how colors relate to one another, how they mix, and how they will look together.

Let’s go over some of the most important aspects of...

You need paper flowers. Be it for a wedding or a gift, you’ve decided that paper flowers are the right choice for you. 

(Great choice, by the way. I wholeheartedly agree!)

Now you just have to place an order. If you’re purchasing a piece that’s already made and listed online, then all you have to do is pull out your credit card and put in your shipping info. 

But that’s not how most paper flower orders work. Let’s talk about commissions and what you need to do before contacting a paper florist.

What Is a Commission?

Due to the handmade and creative nature of our craft, paper florists typically don’t have a lot of inventory on hand. Some might have blooms ready to ship that are listed on their Etsy page or personal website, but the selection will be limited to what can be produced by one person and what they find sells. 

Your tastes differ from the next customer’s, and that’s great! Especially for a...

On June 3, 2021, six paper florists walked into a brand new museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When we finished our work, we’d compiled lilies from more than fifty people around the world into an art installation to honor those who died a century ago in a hateful, racist massacre. 

How did this commemoration endeavor come about?   

It all started when Jessie Chui and I were approached by Amy McGee of Botanical Brouhaha and Sue McLeary of @passionflowersue via the Palmers sisters of The Wild Mother from Oklahoma City. They asked if we wanted to be involved in the centennial commemoration of the Greenwood Massacre that happened in my hometown of Tulsa. 

Why did I say yes? I grew up in Tulsa and was never taught this important history. Only in the past year and a half did I learn about this sad event that occurred 100 years ago. I asked my high school friends, and we all agreed that we were never taught about it at all. It was upsetting that a huge piece of...

With spring around the corner and my new paper flower tutorial being released, I’ve had cherry blossoms on my mind. 

Three years ago I created cherry blossom installations for six stores in Seattle—a huge undertaking that taught me many lessons. To help artists like you along your paper flower journey, I want to share the story behind those installations and the wisdom I gained. 

My love of this tiny five-petal blossom started when I was a small child and first saw a cherry tree bloom. I was standing under the branches when it started to softly rain white petals all around me. Pure magic. That moment stayed with me over the years, but I never had an opportunity to really share that love until I started to make paper flowers.

Back in 2018, I had no active paper flower jobs and decided to take on a big project to really explore my love of paper crafting and my love of this tiny blossom. I made hundreds of cherry blossoms. I started to make cherry blossoms in...

For paper florists, online content is a lifesaver. With just a few clicks, we can share techniques, tool recommendations, and encouragement from around the world. Our niche is thriving because the digital world connects us. But not all online tutorials are equally useful, as you’ve probably discovered.

If you do a quick search for paper flower tutorials, you’ll find a wide range of results: beginner to expert, cardstock to tissue, free videos or paid classes. And once you find crepe paper tutorials, how do you make sure it’s a good one before investing lots of time?

I’ve had the same difficulties. 

When I first started making paper flowers six years ago, I tried every Google combination imaginable to find techniques, tools, and tutorials. Cardstock dominated, and some of the only crepe content I could find was from Tina Nguyen of ABC TV Craft. Her YouTube videos taught me so much, but because they featured no voice, only music, I had to stop and rewatch...

Jumping into the world of paper flowers can be intimidating. After all, nature has provided us with hundreds of thousands of flowering plants that come in a dizzying array of shapes, sizes, and colors. Even an expert paper florist can’t be expected to know how to craft all of them. 

So how can you learn to make more of these amazing varieties of flowers?

No matter if you’re a beginner or an expert, I highly recommend purchasing paper flower books. A book will bring together a wide range of tutorials and include big, beautiful photos that make it easy to follow along with the instructions. The best paper flower books out there come from professional paper florists who have been instructing for years. You can literally hold a huge chunk of their knowledge in your hands.

Before we delve into some of my favorite books, though, I have some tips for you on how to best use these paper flower books. By the end of this post you’ll feel ready to conquer any paper flower...

Standing out in an increasingly crowded industry may feel like a monumental task, especially if you’re just starting out with your business. 

Looking at the competition may bring feelings of dread. That was certainly the case for many of our panelists at our last Paper X Talk lecture about pricing. But one thing stood out above the rest in all of our advice that night: competition should be viewed as a motivator, not a threat.

By the end of this article, you’ll feel motivated when you look at your competition, because you’ll learn how to work with competitors to build up your industry and keep customers happy—and when that happens, your business will grow and you’ll find the success that matters most to you.

Let’s dive in!

Collaborate with Your Competition

This may sound counterintuitive at first, but when you build up your industry, everyone benefits. Paper florist Jessie Chui of Crafted to Bloom is my competition, but...

For many of us in creative fields like paper floral design, starting a business can feel overwhelming. You want to make money from your amazing creations, but that leap forward into businesshood often holds many unknowns for those new to the entrepreneurial side of things. One of the biggest worries new business owners face is uncertainty about money. Just how much upfront investment will you need? Are you forgetting any costs?  Luckily, many people have done this before, including us. We’re also lucky that in a field like paper flowers, the startup costs are relatively low. While we can’t give you an exact number for what your business will cost since there are so many variables, we can give you a starting point, so that you aren’t caught off guard later on. 

Guidance from Professionals

When setting up your business, we highly recommend consulting a lawyer and/or a certified CPA. Taxes and laws are complicated, and it’s worth the money to...