Welcome to Creative Jewish Mom.com! I am so excited to finally be getting this blog off the ground, and rather than spend more precious time on the details of the page design etc. I'm diving off into the deep end with my first real post!
I was hoping to post this before Shavuos as "quick Shavuos decorations", but since that didn't happen you'll have to use this idea next year, or better yet, for your next summer get-together.
These paper flowers were created snowflake style with a package of large sheets of thin shiny paper (in hebrew it's called niyar mavrik) something similar in weight to origami paper. I made many different variations, and then layered the different shapes for a really great effect. For a more stable, long-lasting version, cover each of your creations with clear contact paper, especially recommended for larger intricate designs. Have fun with this simple yet stunning project!
Here's the flowers arranged on my kitchen counter:
And here they are assembled in the entryway to the kitchen. This wall happens to be the side of my kitchen cabinets faced in formica and thus the perfect place to tape up decorations without damaging anything. I lucked out on this one!
The colors from the package of paper that I least loved (brown and dark green) look great outside, taped onto the tile walls of our entrance courtyard.
Start with a square of any size. Fold in half to make a triangle. Fold this triange in half again to make another smaller triangle - twice. Then fold the triangle in half again to form a cone shape. Cut off the excess top portion, resulting in a perfect cone shape. For flowers round off the top to create an ice cream cone with a scoop shape, for geometric shapes experiment with a variety of cuts at the top.
Cut out shapes from the two sides of the cone and cut off the tip for a hole in the center. The surprise that awaits when you unfold your creations is so much fun. My younger children are not yet ready to manipulate scissors to this extent, but I let them open up the flowers after I cut each one to involve them in the project.
If you create a flower shape that you want to repeat, fold the flower back up into it's original cone shape and trace the cut out areas onto another uncut cone. For mass production of the same flower, one could even make a cardboard template to trace.
Enjoy!
