Wafer Paper Flower Tutorial

Hello there! Welcome again to my sweet little corner of the web. I'm here to show you a cool new cakey medium. Well, it's new to me anyway. I'd heard about it a while ago, but didn't know where to find any or how to use it, so the ideas were filed in the already-too-full head of mine, until now. Thank you, Craftsy for a new addiction. In case you didn't figure it out by the post title, it's wafer paper. I've included a link to where you can get some so you can get addicted to it too. You're welcome. :o)

This medium is a blend of two of my favorite hobbies--paper crafting and cakes. After taking a Craftsy class, to get familiar with it, I soon realized that with a little tweaking, my paper crafts could now become edible! Fun! Below you can see two flowers I made using a paper punch from Stampin Up!. The one on the left is made with card stock, and the one on the right is wafer paper.

And guess what? I took pictures when I made these so I could share with you how I did it, in case you'd like to be able to make these super cute flowers yourself. Wouldn't they look adorable on cupcakes? So, let's get started.

Here's what you'll need:
Stampin' Up! Blossom punch
wafer paper
scissors
petal dust (optional)
clean paintbrushes
water
Ignore the piping gel you see in the photo. I ended up not using it.

First you will need to punch out 6 flowers with the punch. The paper is super easy to punch through. Then use your scissors to snip between the petals a bit. I stacked all 6 together and cut through them pretty easily.

Now, with card stock, you would roll the petals around your paint brush handle, but that doesn't work well with wafer paper. It can be a bit brittle and break too easily for that. Instead, take a SMALL amount of water on your paintbrush and gently brush along the edges of each petal on the smooth side of the paper (that's the front). I've highlighted in pink on this flower so you can see where I brushed the water. At first, the petals will begin to curl away from the side you put the water on, but that's OK. Just wait a bit and they will start curling the opposite way.

Here you can see the flowers in the back were the first ones I brushed and they are starting to curl up. The bottom left one is the last one I brushed and it is still curling down here.

Take the first flower that you brushed. It should be still somewhat wet and flexible, but not gooey. You may find that you need to re-snip between the petals if they are stuck together. Put a tiny bit of water on one edge of one petal and roll it around your paint brush. Hold a second till it sticks and then remove the brush.

Now take the opposite petal and brush a tiny bit of water on both edges, bring the petal up and glue it to the first petal.

Take two opposite petals, apply a tiny bit of water on the edges of one petal and glue the two together around the first two petals.

And do the same with the last two petals. These two may need glue on both petals as they may not meet all the way. There, your center is finished.

To help the petals fill out a bit on the remaining flowers, take a little water and apply it to the base of the petals on two flowers. Again, I highlighted this in pink. This will cause them to curl up a bit. These two should be on top of the stack you will do in the next step.

Now, apply a little water to the middle of a flower and stack another one on top, staggering the petals. Keep doing this for the remaining flowers till they're all stacked. and "glue" your center in the middle.

Very gently gather the petals up a bit. You may need to add a little more water at the base of specific petals to help them lift up. If you hold them for a minute or so they will dry and hold their shape.

Then you can use the petal dust of your choice to add some color to your flower. You could even use Wilton Color Mist or an airbrush if you have one of those for cakes.

All finished. Isn't it pretty? It almost looks like a peony in this photo.

What do you think? My head is swimming with ideas with this new medium. Just wish there was more time in my day to get to play. :o) By the way, if you're interested in the card stock flower, I posted a tutorial for it on my craft blog. You can check it out here.

I will leave you with a picture of my first wafer paper cake project. I made this for a church fellowship. They always get to be my guinea pigs when I come up with new ideas. :o) The flowers are wafer paper, as are the stripes on the side of the cake. This was a dark chocolate/orange cake with almond/orange buttercream. Yum!

Well, gotta go finish some chocolate snowmobiles and a John Deere tractor.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!