3D Paper Crafting: Flower Tags

Hello Graphics Fairy friends! I’m Diana from Dreams Factory and I’m really happy to be here again to share another DIY project with you! Today I will show you how to make these gorgeous 3D Paper Crafting project … some lovely Flower Tags. These flowers not only look but also feel real to the touch! Chances are you already have all the supplies you need to make these beauties, so you’ll be able to have them ready in no time.

We’ll be using layers to create a lovely raised effect and we’ll start with a vintage background with perfectly imperfect edges. The top of our tag is a beautiful French ephemera collage with handwritten elements and stamps that has a gorgeous rhododendron flower as a focal point image. This flower will be the star of our project today and we’ll use tissue paper to create a 3D effect on top that will take our creation to a whole new level of chicness!

Here is the printable that I designed for you for this project, just save it on your computer and print it as many times as you want!

Free Printable:

—-> Click HERE to Download the Full Size Printable PDF  <—-

Supply List for 3D Paper Crafting Tags:

• white cardstock paper
• home printer
• scissors
• mini distress inks
• blending tool with foams
• watercolors (I used the Winsor & Newton Cotman pocket box watercolors), you can also use highly diluted acrylic paint
• round brush
• recycled jar for water
• DecoColor gold marker or gold watercolors, gold acrylic paint, gold wax, gold nail polish
• gourd pins – gold or bronze
• glue stick or any other paper glue
• pencil
• hole punch
• crinkle ribbon or any other ribbon that you love
• scrap piece of plastic sheet

Step by Step Tutorial:

Start by printing the tags, you can choose to use regular paper or cardstock paper, depending on your preferences. Use your scissors to cut the base and the top of your tags.

I went with regular paper because I wanted to be able to give the paper an antique look for our next step. You can definitely do that with cardstock paper, too, but I find regular paper to be more pliable and much easier to work with.
Start by folding and unfolding the edges of your top tags while trying to create an irregular effect. Go all around the edges and use your fingers to fold the paper creating irregular effects. Tear the paper in some areas to add even more of that lovely worn effect, then use distress ink to highlight the edges, but also some of the tears and creases. Roll the paper between your fingers here and there and if you expose some of the white paper from the back of the tags, make sure you use distress ink to cover those areas too.

I usually love using Walnut Stain as my distressing brown, but you can also use Vintage Photo or any other variation that you prefer. When you are done, use a little bit of paper glue (I used a glue stick) to adhere the top tags on the vintage bases. Try to leave the top edges unglued so you can further work the paper with your fingers and emphasize the distressing effect on the edges even more.
You can stop at this point if you prefer, the flower tags will look absolutely gorgeous!

But if you want to take these beauties to a whole new level, you can use a little bit of tissue paper to create a super chic 3D flower on top! I used a scrap piece of tissue paper to draw the larger flower, I simply placed the tissue paper on top of a tag and traced its contour using a pencil. Don’t worry about making this perfect, just try to go all over the contour of the flower as well as you can. As you can see, I only traced the outside of the flower and not the inside, this way it will be easier to cut the paper afterward and remove all the pencil marks.

You will need to trace a tissue paper flower for each tag, as you can see the final flowers are not exactly the same, but that’s OK, they don’t have to be perfect.

When you are done, use a pair of small scissors to cut the tissue paper flowers. Cut inside the shapes making sure you completely remove all the pencil lines. At this point, you can even go a little bit further inside the shape to highlight the shape of each petal even more.

Time to move on to painting the flowers! Place a transparent plastic sheet on one of the tags, then place the first tissue paper flower on top.

Make sure you place the tissue flower in the right position, the shape of your tissue paper flower should match the shape of the flower underneath – rotate the flower until you have a perfect match! Use red or pink (I used Alizarin Crimson) watercolors and a small round brush to paint the tissue paper flower following the shadows of the design underneath starting from the middle of the flower. You won’t be able to completely see the flower underneath, but you’ll get an idea where the color is more intense, so you’ll need to follow that color pattern to create your own matching pattern on top. Try not to add an excessive amount of water or too much paint, the paper will soak up fairly easily and the paint will disperse quite quickly, so you won’t be able to be in control if adding too much all at once.

When you are done painting the first flower, slightly move the plastic sheet to the left and place another tissue paper flower on it. Paint that next flower following the same color pattern from underneath. Add a touch more color in the middle of the flower and let it create beautiful watercolor effects. You can also add a tiny bit of brown in the middle if you want. After the flowers dried a little bit, I used a highly diluted wash using the same color and water to lightly color the edges of the flowers too. You can start painting from the edges this time and you can use the highly diluted paint to only color the white space on the tip of the petals while trying not to merge it with the already more intense painted areas. I actually painted more tissue paper flowers than I needed because I wanted to experiment a little bit, but you can make as many as you want. If you make more, you’ll have more options to choose from!
It’s really important to let the tissue paper flowers completely dry on the plastic sheet, if you try to remove them while they are still wet, they will tear! Please don’t ask me how I know that (wink).

This is how my final tissue paper flowers turned out, you can see that each color pattern is quite unique!
You can use the end of a brush to lightly fold the flowers to create even more of a raised effect.

And then, you can finally start gluing the tissue paper flowers on top of each tag! But first, before actually adding the glue, it’s really important to rotate the tissue paper flower on the tag until you find the perfect position in terms of shape, but also color – the color pattern on top should match the pattern color underneath!
Use a fine-tip applicator to add a small blob of glue to the back of the tissue flower, in the middle, then use your index finger to press that area on the tag and glue it. When pressed, that small blob of glue will create the perfect middle for our tissue paper flower!

You can add a touch of gold in the middle if you want, I used my trusted Decocolor gold marker to do this. I created the gilded middle using dabbing motions instead of just drawing some regular lines. You can also use any other gold that you have around like gold acrylic paint, gold watercolors or even gold nail polish!

Add coffee-distressed crinkle ribbons and some gourd pins (or adapt and use what you have around) and take a moment to breathe in and admire your beautiful work! As you can see, each tag turned out to be quite unique, the final results are absolutely gorgeous, don’t you think?

The 3D effect of the tissue paper flowers brings so much charm and elegance to these beauties, that you might even think they are real flowers!

And when you touch the delicate petals with your fingers, you will be amazed to see how much they also feel like real flowers!

And since we matched the color pattern on top with the color pattern underneath, we will get a truly unique effect that perfectly complements and emphasizes the overall design.

It’s hard to explain how sheer and delicate the flowers look and feel, but I would say that for me, the first visual and tactile sensation instantly made me think of real flowers! Experiment on your own and create your own super chic vintage tags with petals that feel like real flowers, then find intriguing ways of including them in all sorts of creative projects. Add them as unique 3D embellishments while wrapping gifts, include them in your junk journals or simply use them as mini decorative signs in your home!

It’s actually quite amazing once you realize that you managed to create this unique effect yourself using tissue paper, so I hope you will give this lovely project a try! You might also like my Get Well Card Making Kit HERE using the same floral motif.

Happy crafting,
Diana / Dreams Factory