I save the wrappers from tea bags that I use to brew tea. I've done it for years, and now have quite a collection. I use them in collages, and was not sure what else to do with them until one day when I got the idea of using them to make paper flowers. I searched out instructions in a book that was on my bookshelf, Fanciful Paper Flowers: Creative Techniques for Crafting an Enchanted Garden, by Sandra Evertson. I learned the structure of making these paper flowers from this book. It really is a wonderful book that is full of fun ideas and beautiful illustrations.
Above you see flowers created with two different types of tea bag wrappers. The pink ones are made with foil-lined wrappers. The lavender, white, and yellow flowers in the teapot are made with paper wrapper. I prefer the look and malleability of the foil-lined wrappers. But both types of wrappers will work.
If you want to give this project a try, I suggest that you buy the thick material flower-shaped punch by Fiskars. I believe I found mine at JoAnne's. Regular flower punches will work. But I punch through both layers of foil/paper at the same time, so the two layers of the tea bag wrapper tend to get stuck in regular punches.
I guess the only technical part of this project that is not obvious from the photos is how to attach the wire floral stem to the flower. Here are basic instructions.
1) Punch a cardboard circle from card stock or lightweight cardboard.
2) Glue this circle to the back of the flower that you have created.
3) Take your floral stem and bend it into a small spiral at one end.
4) Glue the wire spiral to the cardboard circle on the back of your flower.
5) Bend the wire to orient the face of the flower in whatever direction you like.
Voila! You have a flower on a stem that is ready for a vase or a floral arrangement anchored into floral foam.
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