Fields Of Heather: Making Crepe Paper Flowers With Cricut

Tips, Tricks, & Free SVGS

For Making Crepe Paper Flowers

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You'll want to use the rotary blade for cutting crepe paper, and that blade can only be used in the Maker series of machines.

Then, you'll want to make sure the grain of the crepe paper is going in the correct direction for the petals. Grain is important when working with crepe paper.

It's often easier to just cut a template with the cricut, then use the template to cut the crepe paper by hand.

Abbi Kirsten recommends setting the pressure to "more" when using the maker

https://www.abbikirstencollections.com/how-to-cut-crepe-paper-with-the-cricut-maker/

Glue cannot be tacky enough nor thin enough. Water will cause the crepe to stretch and will ruin the texture/stretch of the paper - so use sparingly. Consider double sided tape in place of glue. You'll also want a hot glue gun, for some of the assembly.

Fine crepe paper is more realistic, but heavy crepe paper is more forgiving.

TIP - Save your crepe paper scraps and ball them up to form flower centers [in place of Styrofoam balls]

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Choosing A Crepe Paper
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There are 3 main types of Crepe Paper, based on where it is manufactured:

Chinese, Italian, German

For a more in depth explanation [and other tool tips]

10 Things to Know About Crepe Paper by Lia Griffith

You all know how I feel about Youtube Videos [If you are new - I can read SO much faster than you all can speak] but I watched this one. Yes, it's a bit of an informercial for Lia Griffith crepe paper, but.. Lia Griffith really is the best when it comes to crepe paper flowers. She knows her stuff. This video is a great explanation of Chinese, Italian, and German crepe papers. The differences, and why her collaboration with the German company is made specifically for paper flower makers. She still recommends Italian Paper [not hers] if you want to make really large paper flowers. While she obviously promotes her own brand here, she also lists other brands she recommends, and tells you to work with whatever you have.

Note - a possible substitution for her panpastel set [$57] is eye shadow. I know a lot of crafters have been using eye shadow palettes when making paper flowers.

I'm a big fan of Lia Griffith, and someday will likely subscribe for her membership. At this point in my life, I know I simply don't have the time to really use it - but it always tempts me, she has gorgeous projects in her classes.

https://amzn.to/3UExKEF

However, her crepe paper is far and away the most expensive option. According to a guide by Oksana, "For example, a pack of 10 rolls of Lia's “heavy crepe paper” cost $20, that is, 1 roll cost $2. But the size of this roll is 5 times smaller than standard crepe paper roll. So, in terms of the amount of paper - 5 Lia’s rolls are equal to one standard size Italian or Chinese roll.

Thus, not only you have to buy several packs to make a large flower of one color (or if
you need to make a lot of flowers of the same color), but you will pay a higher price (
$10) for the same amount of paper that you have in standard Italian roll ($7).

The Carte Fini brand, Italian, is recommended by several flower makers I follow

https://amzn.to/4dyl1vM

You can download Oksana's Crepe Paper Guide by signing up for her email list here:

https://fancybloom.net/guide/

This video by Oksana is a little long - but if you skip through, you can see how she stretches the petals, with explanations on why it's important not to overstretch.