The Spotted Sparrow

It has been grey and dismal in Aachen for weeks and I am ready for some color! It's still too early for fresh spring flowers, so I made some from paper to brighten up the apartment. We don't have kids, but I imagine this would be a great project to do with them.

Materials:

• crepe or tissue paper
• pipe cleaner or wire
• scissors

1. Cut the paper
Cut 5-8 sheets of paper, each the same size. You can make the flowers as big or small as you like, but rectangular pieces of paper work best. Once you have your paper cut, stack the sheets on top of each other. The more sheets of paper you have, the fuller your flower will be.

2. Fold the paper
Lay the stack of paper vertically in front of you. Remember how you made paper fans when you were a kid? That's called an accordion fold and that's exactly how we're going to fold the stack of paper. Make a 1"-2" fold at the bottom of the stack. Flip the stack over and make another fold at the bottom of the stack, matching the size of the first fold. Continue flipping and folding until you reach the top of the stack of paper.




3. Cut the paper
You should now have a thin, folded stack of paper. Round each end of the paper stack. Alternatively, you could cut each end into a point for a different look.



4. Attach the pipe cleaner
Fold the stack in half to find the center. Wrap the pipe cleaner around the stack at the center mark. Twist the two ends of the pipe cleaner together to secure it. Leave it a little loose so you can attach the stamen in the next step.



5. Make the stamen
You should have some scrap paper left over, either from cutting your paper to size or from trimming the ends. Take a few thin pieces of scrap paper and twist them tightly into thin strips. I did this by just rolling the paper between my fingers. Slide each twisted piece of paper under the pipe cleaner, so that the middle of each piece of twisted paper is under the pipe cleaner. Twist the pipe cleaner tightly to secure the stamen in place. Fold the twisted pieces of paper upwards around the pipe cleaner.




5. Make the flower
Hold the flower in your hand by the pipe cleaner and fan out the paper to either side. Starting with the top layer, gently pull each layer of paper upwards, forming the flower.