Poppy Place Card Holders

Poppies are beautiful. The Icelandic variety is one of my favourites. We show you a few different materials that you can use to make these lovely flowers, perfect for marking a spot. This is a project for slightly older children (you might want to make some too!).

Materials

Crepe paper or coffee filters or cupcake liners
Paint or food colouring (if you go with the cupcake liners or coffee filter options)
Scissors
Fringe scissors (optional- you can use regular scissors too- these are just fun!)
Floral wire
Floral tape
Child-safe cotton swab
Thicker paper
Tacky glue
Pencil/pen
Glue stick

We always find these items useful too:

Directions

You can use a few different things to form your flowers and leaves- either coloured crepe paper, painted coffee filters or painted cupcake liners (you could also buy coloured ones to use). If you paint your coffee filters or cupcake liners, lay them on a cooling rack to dry overnight so that they are really dry for your project’s glue.

Cut out your petals. We start with a rectangle and then refine them. They almost look slightly triangular in shape with a slimmer bottom and wider on the top. Then make the top a bit wavy. Cut out 4-6. You can cut them out individually, but after you become more experienced and if your scissors are pretty good, you could cut several out at a time!

Cut one end off of the child-safe cotton swab and then cut that tiny part of the cotton area on the other end. Cut a square of your crepe/ coffee liner/ cupcake liner. Put a dot of the tacky glue in the centre of the square and put the cotton end into the dot and wrap the crepe around to form the centre of your flower. (See the video for a clear demo). Secure the paper with floral tape. Floral tape seems like it is dried out- don’t be fooled by this! The glue is activated by stretching it. So pick the spot to start, hold it place with your thumb and finger on your non-dominant hand and then pull it taut to activate the glue while tightly wrapping it around. It is almost a “pulling up and then over” motion. You may need a bit of adult help with this until you get the hang of it!

Now it is time to add the petals. Put a line of glue on the bottom of the petal and wrap it around your flower centre/stem squeezing it in place. Add another on the opposite side. Secure it in place with some floral tape. Repeat this on the opposite side, adding two more petals. You can repeat this as many times as you like, depending on how full you would like the blooms. When you add additional rounds, be sure to make them a bit longer. With the last round wrap the tape down the stem a bit to blend it in.

Cut out and add leaves in the same fashion.

We then coiled the wire at the bottom so the poppies could stand.

Cut out a strip of paper (a paper cutter comes in handy for this) and fold it in half. We cut a triangle out of the ends. Write the names of your guests on each of the strips of paper, wrap them around the stems and then glue the sides together. Put them out on a table or to decorate another space such as your mantle.