This fabulous table centerpiece from the wedding reception of an English teacher bride and her book-loving groom was made from a stack of books tied with a ribbon and topped with a hand-crafted paper rose. Creating paper roses from book pages is a surprisingly easy art project, even if you don’t consider yourself particularly artsy.

It’s a fun and creative craft project for kids too. My granddaughter at age 10 enjoyed making paper roses with me.

Here’s my method of crafting paper roses, adapted from various other tutorials:

What you need:

– book pages to cut into circles at least 4″ wide.
– scissors
– pipe cleaners
– hot glue gun or a glue stick.

What you do:

1. For each rose you need 4 circles. I traced circles using a mixing bowl, and cut them out a couple at a time. It’s okay if  they aren’t cut perfectly because the edges will be trimmed.

2. Fold each circle in half, then in half again, and then once more (3 times in all), so the circle is folded in quarters.

3. Trim the top in a more rounded shape for the petals.

4. Open the circles. From one circle, cut one petal out. From another circle, cut two petals. From another, cut four, and cut the
last circle in half.

5. Overlap two petals and lightly glue them together to form cones. With the two smallest cut-outs, roll and glue narrow cones to use for the inside of the rose.

6. Curl the edges of the larger petals. I rolled the edges around a meat thermometer — it was just the right size.

7. Snip the pointed tip of each cone just enough to thread a pipe cleaner through. Crimp the end of a pipe cleaner to make a little knob. Stack the cones, starting with the smallest, by threading them onto the pipe cleaner. You can use a spot of glue on the knob of the pipe cleaner so the first cone doesn’t slip through.

8. When you have them all stacked, put a little glue on base of the flower to hold it to the pipe cleaner.

The End Result

I used my paper flowers in a wreath that’s about 12″ to 14″ wide, perfect for 10 roses. Simply thread the pipe cleaner through the grapevine and glue around the base of the rose where it touches the wreath. I also cut paper leaves and glued them onto pipe cleaners.

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Linda K. Sienkiewicz writes fiction, poetry and essays. Her second novel, Love and Other Incurable Ailments, is coming October 27, 2026 from Regal House Publishing: When an anxious overthinker finds discarded love letters, her fixation on a stranger pulls her straight into chaos, heartbreak, and the unraveling of her carefully constructed life.
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