Today, we’re celebrating the mother figures in our lives with this 3D flower design (free for a limited time)! This is a great paper craft to display around springtime or summer. Lupines mainly come in purple or blue, but you can make these whichever color you’d like. This 3D project looks beautiful in a vase and is a great present for a family member, friend, or loved one. Follow the tutorial below to make your own! (And maybe make a vase using the Silhouette Alta® or Alta Plus to go along with it!)

Supplies Needed

Step One: Open and Cut the Design

1. Go to your Silhouette Library in Silhouette Studio® and open the 3D flower design (Design ID #320107).

2. Right-click on the design and click “Ungroup.”

3. Arrange and group each piece by color. You’ll need to cut multiple times for the petals and the green elements.

4. Load your machine with your mat and corresponding colored cardstock.

5. Go to the Send Panel and choose the correct cut settings for your type of paper and blade. When you’re ready to cut your design, click the Send button.

Step Two: Assemble the Design

1. Once your design is cut, it’s time to start assembling the flower stalk. Carefully remove the pieces of paper off of your mat.

2. To assemble the flowers, take the piece with the tabs, and fold the tabs upward, while folding the piece down the middle. Take the piece without tabs, and put adhesive or glue on the bottom angles. Fold it inward. Attach the two pieces by placing the folded tabs onto the adhesive with the two separate pieces folding in toward each other. See the example photos below. Repeat for all of the flowers.

3. Put glue or adhesive on the tab of the bud. Fold downward on the score lines, and attach the tab to the other side of the fold. There will be a slight curve to the bud. Repeat this for all the buds.

3. To attach the green foliage to the buds, place glue or adhesive on the bottom of the v-shape of the foliage. Fold inward on the score line, and hold at the bottom of the bud until somewhat dry. Repeat this for all the buds.

4. Now we’re going to start to build the foundation of our flower stalk. Group up the flower pieces into threes, each group of three with a brace piece, reserving the smaller brace pieces for the two groups of buds. Take a green brace piece, and fold it downwards on the fold lines. Adhere the flowers to the ends. Repeat this step until all groups are assembled.

5.  Take the two smallest green brace pieces, and adhere the buds to the ends. There will be one extra bud that will be attached to the top of our flower stalk. Curl the edges of the green foliage away from the bud using a pen or the end of the Silhouette Hook Tool.

6. All of these pieces that you just assembled with become layers on the flower stalk. Take a piece of wire, and bend a loop at the bottom, this will be used as a base for the stalk. Place it into a small flower pot, and fill the pot with dried beans or small stones. Start to stack the layers onto one another, starting with the flower layers and ending with the two layers of buds.

5. We’re going to use floral tape to add space between our layers. Grab the top bud layer, and bring it up to the top of the stalk but make sure it is still resting on the wire. Take a piece of floral tape, and wrap it around the wire directly below the bud layer. Pull it tight to activate the adhesive. You can see that the top bud layer will be resting on the floral tape. When that’s secure, bring up the next layer—the other bud layer—and wrap a piece of floral tape directly below the layer. Repeat with the next layer, which will be the start of the full flowers. You’ll be able to start to see the construction of the flower stalk as you progress. When you work your way down the stalk, you’ll want to add a little bit more space between the layers. The bigger flowers near the bottom will need more space from the layer above. This also mimics the natural composition of the flower stalk.

6. Now that the layers are spaced apart, we’ll want to fold down the edges of the braces. Start at the bottom and work your way up, folding the braces at the score line near the edge. Twist the layers so that the flowers on the layer above, fit into the free spaces on the layer below. If any of the layers are unbalanced, you can use some glue to attach the layer to the wire firmly. To assemble the leaves, take 2 pieces of wire and cut in half. Use a pen or the edge of your hook tool to curl the individual leaves in half. Use glue to adhere the leaves onto the end of the wire. Stick the opposite ends of the wire into your flowerpot, and arrange as you’d like.

7. Make sure the stalk wire is somewhat straight, and the leaves are arranged how you want!