Courage Flower Ornament Tutorial

Life in the desert has been extra-warm this fall with temperatures still in the 80's, causing me great confusion with calendars and the thought that Christmas is about five weeks away.

I love to talk about life in the desert and stories of courage and belonging: belonging to family, to community and to a loving God.  Last week during a writing workshop at a cancer center, I met three incredibly courageous women who shared pieces of their difficult, yet beautiful stories. I wanted to hand out badges with the words, "Thanks for being courageous today."

Courage sometimes sits at a table with tears flowing down a face while you stutter out sentences to places where there are no easy words.

Two summers ago, I posted a tutorial on creating beautiful paper flowers using courage paper. I have since used those same handmade flowers to make courage ornaments. Perhaps, you know someone that needs a bit of homemade courage this Christmas. (If I had had them at the cancer center, I would have handed them all around!)

Either a single bloom or an entire bouquet

!I've included the directions in a photo tutorial below and you can get a free download of the courage paper here.

Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.  -- Psalm 31:24. KJV

I love the old-fashioned truth of those words.

Be of good courage.

Let's spread some of that courage this holiday season. 

You will need the following supplies:

• courage paper printed back to back

• toothpicks or wooden skewers

• a pencil

• a ruler

• twine

• scissors

• You could use a glue gun, but I don't like using hot glue on such detailed, close work to my fingers! Even the ones advertised as not being hot are too hot for me.

• For an ornament: a clear ornament that splits into two halves.  Size 80 mm.  Approx 3.25 inches.(This is not in the photo below, because I added it later. Sorry!)

Supplies for Courage Flowers

Folding Paper for Courage Flowers

Courage Flowers Cutting the Petals

Courage Flowers Step 5

Courage Flowers Step 6

Courage Flowers Step 7

Courage Flowers step 8

Courage Flowers Center

Courage Flowers Step 10

Courage Flowers step 11

Courage flowers underside

Courage Flower Finished Sample

Courage Flowers Completed

Sorry about this but when we transferred the blog to a new website, all the photos went to the top. I think you can figure it out!

Cut the courage paper into four 3.5" squares. If you cut carefully, you will have enough paper for 6 squares. The other 2 squares can be saved for another flower. Fold each square as pictured below. (Imagine you are folding your paper to cut snowflakes like you did in kindergarten). Save the leftover paper, you will need a wee bit for a small circle later.

Make a 1/4 inch cut across the triangle at the point with all the folds. Cut the top of the triangle in a rounded shape like a petal. See below. Do this to all four pieces of paper. Unfold. You will have 4 sets of petaled circles.  

Cut off pieces of the circles so that the petals are in a group of 7, 6, 5 and 4, as pictured below. Save the cut pieces.  

Glue the pieces so that one petal completely overlaps another petal. You will end up with four circles in sections of 6, 5, 4, and 3, as pictured below. 

Curl each petal using a toothpick. Using 3-4 of your leftover petals, glue the papers around a toothpick or skewer for the center of the flower. I prefer half of a wooden skewer (the type you use for making shish kabobs). It gives you a six-inch stem for the flower.  The photo makes it look like a toothpick, but the skewer is pushed through a crack in the wood for photo purposes. Your petals should look like this.

Cut a circle from the leftover paper the size of a penny.  

Working from the largest circle to the smallest, glue to the penny-size circle. It helps to scrunch the bottom of the petals a bit before gluing to the circle. Here are two circles in place. 

Remove glue from your hands as you go, so you don't end up with a mess, especially when pushing the skewer through all the petals to complete the flower.

The underside of the flower looks like this: 

Here is your masterpiece!  Add a bit of twine or ribbon for the leaves and wallah!, you are done! 

Here is a photo of the completed ornament. I put one flower on a bed of shredded paper and trimmed off the toothpick. (Sorry about the glare!)

Be of good courage!