DIY Paper Corsage & Boutonniere Party

Last night we hosted a DIY paper corsage & boutonniere party at our house. I prepped crepe paper flower kits in advance so five couples (ten teenagers) could make their date’s boutonniere or corsage.

Meeting Lia Griffith

Have you ever made a crepe paper flower? I met Lia Griffith this May while at Silhouette Summit and had a total fan-girl moment because I’ve been following her amazing work for years! She’s a paper-flower master, to put it simply. I have her book, a set of her extra-fine crepe paper, and I check out her website LiaGriffith.com regularly.

I was able to tell her that I’ve made several paper flower corsages for my son’s dates the past couple of years. Here they are. (Yeah, I know they never made it to my blog. A social media post for each was as far as I got.)

Lia was extremely nice in person, and she was excited about my work. She suggested I do a corsage & boutonniere party, which I thought was a fun idea.

Fast forward to my daughter recently turning 16 and being asked out to her high school homecoming dance. My daughter’s request? Host a corsage & boutonniere party where the couples make each other’s corsage and boutonniere. The only problem up until now was I have had to cut crepe paper flower pieces by hand. I wouldn’t dare attempt making so many flower kits using just scissors.

Enter the Silhouette CAMEO 4.

Flower Kits

The rotary blade in Tool 2 of the CAMEO 4 cuts extra-fine crepe paper beautifully! I managed to cut out enough paper petals (from crepe paper using Tool 2) and greenery (from cardstock using Tool 1) to make 18 flower kits, plus enough to make 5 sample flowers.

My new CAMEO 4 did not disappoint. It’s a workhorse, just like all my previous CAMEO models. The only thing left to do was teach 10 teenagers how to shape petals and assemble flowers in a reasonable amount of time.

I laid out all the supplies ahead of time.

Samples

As I mentioned, I created my own sample flowers in advance with help from Lia Griffith’s book. Some were complete corsages and boutonnieres, and some of the flowers were by themselves without anything extra.

Flower Power

Once the teens started arriving, I showed them how to shape the petals and start assembling their flowers one petal at a time.

Personality

Once they learned the basics, I let them do everything on their own so their personal style could show through. I had my own ideas about how it should go, but I let them do their own thing. I love watching others create and gain new ideas from them.

This was a fun date idea because they were all busy with their hands (i.e. no cell phones out), and they could talk and help each other.

All the couples finished their corsages and boutonnieres, and I think they had fun in the process. It was fun to see the variety, especially considering they all started with the same basic petals. Here are the finished results!

Do you feel like hosting your own corsage & boutonniere party? I highly recommend Lia Griffith’s book, and I highly recommend a cutting machine like the Silhouette CAMEO 4 that will do most of the prep work for you.

Let me know if you try it out!

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