Made by hand: paper bag flowers

Early on in our wedding planning, fellow planner-in-crime Alison discovered this ingenious craft by Martha Stewart. I love how simple the project and sweet the result. After months of contemplating a million options for how to decorate the room where we held dancing after our wedding, we decided these paper flowers were a quick, easy, and charming way to go.

Here is how to make them...

You'll need about 9-12 bags depending on the size of the flower and how big you want the petals to look (the more bags the smaller the petals). I bought yellow, green, and white bags from Michaels in a few different sizes.

The first thing you do is cut off the bottom of the bags.



Next cut a petal shape by trimming the top edges of the bags.



Using a hole punch, punch a hole in the center of each bag, along the bottom edge.



Attach the bags to each other by placing a small (2-3 inches in this case) piece of double stick tape to the bottom side edges of each bag, then place another bag on top of it. Don't adhere the whole edge, just the bottom bit, or the flower won't open.



Once all the bags are taped to one another, string ribbon, yarn, or thread of some kind through the holes and tie a knot. This part is a little tricky because if you make the loop too small the flower won't open, and if you make it too big it will be too loose. So you might have to experiment a little.



When you're ready to hang the flower, tie a long piece of ribbon or yarn or thread to the loop. Then put some double stick tape on the top paper bag, and pull the bag on the bottom around to meet it. Make sure the long piece you've attached hangs down the center of the top flower petal (between taped edges). You will use this to hang the flower with.