DIY Giant Watercolor Paper Flowers

by Lynn Lilly, Jan 18 2021

For my latest 30-Minute Made with Marabu Art Project I combined two of my favorite things, watercolor and paper flowers! Not only do I love making paper flowers but I love making big statement paper flowers! When it comes to watercolor, Marabu Graphix Aqua Inks are the brightest most vibrant watercolor I have ever worked with. I love that you can create vibrant designs right out of the bottle or if you want a pastel color you can add a little water.

Painting with Aqua Inks got even easier with the Marabu Fluid Arts Brushes. The Fluid Arts Brushes come as a pack of 3 fillable brushes with 2mm round, 4mm round, and 5mm flat brush. The brushes can not only be filled with Aqua Inks but also water, isopropyl alcohol, ink, watercolor, or most any fluid medium. For this project I filled my brushes with Aqua Inks and one with water.

To help make these flowers and leaves I created templates you can download for free and cut out by hand. I typically cut all my paper flowers by hand instead of using a cutting machine.

Materials:

Marabu Fluid Arts Brushes
Marabu Graphix Aqua Ink
Marabu Graphix Permanent Markers
Watercolor Paper
Scissor
Free Templates
Hot Glue Gun and Glue
Pencil

Directions:

Download, print and cut out the small, medium and large petal template. For each large flower you will need 6 small, 6 medium and 6 large petals. Since I was making 2 flowers I cut 12 of each size. Trace templates on watercolor paper.
Cut a circle that is approximately 4-5" wide. from the watercolor paper.
Trace and cut your desired amount of leaves. I used about 25 leaves with a mix of the three styles.
Fill the Fluid Arts Brushes with Aqua Ink and fill one with water. For the petals I selected Magenta and Dark Violet.
Grab a scrap of watercolor paper and test out your brushes and get used to how the fluid flows out of the brush.
When you are ready brush the magenta on the top half of the petal and dark violet on the bottom. Take the brush filled with water and apply over the colors to blend them. You can come back with the magenta and dark violet brush to add and blend.
Repeat this with all the petals.
For the leaves I filled my brushes with Aqua Inks in Petrol, Mint, Reseda. I used a different technique for the leaves. I started by brushing the leaves with the brush filled with water then coming back with Aqua Ink filled brushes to brush on color and blend.
Next I took 2 sheets of watercolor paper (1 for each flower) and painted it with a brush filled with Aqua Ink in Sunshine Yellow. Once the sheets were dry I cut 2" inch strips. Cut slits alongside each strip that are about 1/4" wide. Glue two strips together with the backs facing inward, making sure the fringe side of the strips are facing the same way. Roll and glue the strip. Carefully fluff the fringes. You will need one for each flower.
Once the petals and leaves are dry use the permanent markers to add vein and texture lines.
Next cut a slit at the bottom of each leaf and petal. Place a line of glue on right side of the slit and glue the left side over to give each petal and leaf dimension.
Take the circle you cut and glue the 6 large petals around the outside of the circle. Next move inward and glue the 6 medium petals. Follow with the 6 small petals. Glue the yellow flower in the center. Do the same for the second flower.
To create a garland with the leaves and the two giant flowers you can either glue the leaves to the flowers and glue the flowers together or you can cut 4" inch strips of your watercolor paper or card stock and glue them together. The strips should be as long as your desired garland. My garland is about 36" inches long. If you use the paper strip, glue each flower to the paper strip and leave a 6-8" gap between flowers. Fill in the gap and either side of the flower with the leaves.