Origami Flower Arrangement in Progress

Lots of wedding preparations going on this month. I've been folding flowers for awhile, and finally got to the point where I could start on some centerpiece arrangements. It was hard to find red paper that works for this (especially in the right shade of red)! After a lot of trial and error, I settled on the three different papers shown above.

The top flower is made from a red-on-red toned gift wrap paper purchased at The Container Store. (They put out their holiday wrap nice and early!) Their gift wrap is generally very sturdy and can hold up to folding and handling. But even this paper wore down quickly around the folded edges, and the result was rough-looking white spots along the edges. I decided to color the outside folded edges with gold to camouflage the wear and tear. It turned out to be a nice effect, I think! I'm using a metallic gold ink pad -- I just run the edges of the paper across the pad before the final folding stage. (It does require a little drying time.) I also decided not to worry about the white side of the paper showing along the fold in the petals. I figure it compliments the red and gold.

The red flower on the left is made from a sturdy scrapbooking paper purchased at Michael's. It has a subtle texture of starburst shapes. The paper is a dull red-orange color, so I thought I wouldn't be able to use it. But my fiance suggested I try coating these particular flowers with a gloss finishing spray -- low and behold, the result is dark red flowers with a subtle shine to them! Perfect! The texture shows up better with the gloss finish, too. This paper is red on both sides, another great quality for origami.

The third, small flower is made from ivory wedding gift wrap paper from The Container Store -- it has a nice subtle decorative pattern. This paper has been the most successful for this origami project because 1) it's quite sturdy and holds up to folding, 2) it holds it shape really well when curled (such as the petal areas), and 3) the light color camouflages any wear along the edges (and there isn't much!).

That's only the start of the arrangement in the photo. Still some work to do on it! The leaves are artificial, but NOT made of paper. I purchased a package of individual fake leaves at Michael's. I'm also using some artificial berry picks and other holiday picks to fill out the arrangement.

Hopefully I'll have photos of the actual finished arrangements after the wedding!