How to Make Amazing Rolled Paper Roses

Rolled paper roses bring me joy.  When I bought my first house, I didn’t have a great lawn, but it was a perfect spot for a cottage garden.  So I filled the space around my house with lots of flowers.  At times, it was overflowing with blooms. 

Creating paper flowers, especially rolled paper roses reminds me of that first cottage garden.  

Do you love flowers?  You will probably love to make these rolled roses, too.  This article will tell you how to create rolled paper roses from cardstock.  

This video will also show you how to make these paper roses:

I also have a step-by-step tutorial and a rose SVG in my Maker Library.  Join my Maker Library for free and download all my tutorials, SVGs, and patterns!

For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links which means I may make a commission, but it won’t cost you any more.  Read my entire disclosure here.

Tools And Materials

• Cutting machine such as a Cricut Maker (affiliate link)
• Medium weight cardstock (affiliate link)
• Quilling Tool (affiliate link) or Reverse Action Tweezers
• Hot glue gun (affiliate link) with glue sticks or tacky glue (affiliate link)

Basic Tools For Rolled Paper Roses

To get started, you will need a few tools.  First, you will need some way to cut your rose pattern or SVG.  I use my Cricut Maker, but if you are adept with scissors, you could use a pair of scissors to cut the pattern.

You will also need a quilling tool or a pair of tweezers.  Many people prefer cross action tweezers, but regular tweezers work well, too.  In the video, I demonstrate rolling the rose with both a quilling tool and reverse action tweezers.  

I prefer to use the quilling tool.  

Some people like to DIY their quilling tool.  I have not actually tried to do this, but you can find several videos (like this one) on how to make your own quilling tool. 

The Supplies and Techniques Necessary

Cardstock for Rolled Paper Roses

If  you have never made rolled flowers before, you can use any type of cardstock.  I recommend using at least a medium weight cardstock, though.  The rolling technique seems to go much better with heavier cardstock.

In my video for this project, the white cardstock is a lighter weight than the other two colors of cardstock.  The white cardstock ripped in a few places – not a disaster, but it could be aggravating for someone just learning how to roll a paper flower.

Solid Core vs. White Core

Another important consideration when creating rolled paper roses (or any rolled flower) is whether the paper is solid core or white core.  

So what’s the difference?  Solid core means that whatever color the cardstock is, it is that color all the way through the cardstock.  

White core means that only the two sides have color while the center of the cardsock remains white.

Now, if you are just learning how to roll paper flowers, it doesn’t really matter whether you have solid core cardstock or not.  However, once you begin rolling flowers for a project, you will want to use a solid core cardstock – it will give a better finished look to your project.

Adhesive

My favorite glue for rolled paper roses is hot glue.  For this project, I used my larger hot glue gun on the low temperature setting.  The higher temperature setting can sometimes discolor the cardstock.

If you do not have a hot glue gun or don’t like using one, then any tacky glue will work.  Although I like using hot glue, it can be messy.  And I struggle with all the ‘glue hairs’ that end up on my project and work surface!

Patterns

I’ve included an SVG and a PDF of a rose for this project in my Maker Library.  (It’s free!).  Rolled flower templates are spirals with a petal shape on one edge.  

If you have a Cricut cutting machine, you may have other templates in Design Space. 

Basic Steps For Rolled Paper Roses

The steps are simple:

1.  Cut the spirals.
2. Roll the spirals with a quilling tool.
3. Glue the flower to the base.

Cutting the Spirals

First, upload my rolled paper roses svgs into Design Space or another cutting program.  I have two different versions of the rolled paper roses SVGs in my Maker Library.  

In the video tutorial, I only upload and use the ‘rolled rose 2’ SVG. But you can use both or just one.  Whatever floats your boat.

Resize the rose, if necessary.  Just remember to ‘lock’ your width and height ratios, so the pattern will keep the correct proportions.  

If you are just learning to make rolled paper flowers, I would suggest making the width 6 inches.  Going much smaller or larger while learning the technique can lead to frustration.  

Roll The Spirals

Once the spirals are cut and removed from the mat, you will want to use your quilling tool or tweezers to roll the flower.  Place the end of the paper in the slit of the quilling tool (or grasp the end with the tweezers) and roll.

You can roll toward your body or away from it – whichever feels most comfortable to you.  

Try to keep the spirals on top of each other.  Don’t let them spin off the top or move down onto the handle of your tool.  

Once  you have rolled the entire spiral, carefully remove it from your quilling tool.  Be sure to keep your fingers on the spiral to keep it from unrolling.  

Put the flower in the palm of one hand and squeeze.  Place the index finger of your other hand on top of the flower to keep the center from popping out.  Gradually release the pressure of your palm, so that the flower can unroll just a little bit.  Don’t open your palm too much, though, or the flower will completely unroll!

Glue The Spiral To The Base

Next, add hot glue or tacky glue to the bottom of the spirals and to the small circle at the end that acts as a base.  Press the flower onto the base and hold for a few seconds.  

Finally, to make your rose look more realistic, you will need to play with the petals a bit.  Bend the outer petals back so that they are more open.  I try to ‘open’ two or three layers of petals by bending them outward.

You will notice in my video at Payne & Simple Makes that I use a small glue stick to roll the petals back BEFORE I roll the spiral on my quilling tool.  This also helps to condition the petals to look more natural.  Often, I roll the petals before and after using the quilling tool.  

And that’s it!

Takeaway

Creating rolled paper flowers is so easy and the results are amazing!  The tools and supplies are few and inexpensive, making this a simple craft.  

So now that you know how to make rolled paper roses, you might be wondering what type of project you can make with them.  The ideas are endless, but be sure to check back for my next post where I will show you a quick Fourth of July project using rolled paper roses!

If you love making paper flowers, check out How To Make Beautiful Layered Paper Flowers Even If You’ve Never Made Them Before  or How To Make Beautiful Letter Art With Simple DIY Layered Paper Flowers.

You can find step-by-step instructions with photos in my Maker Library.  All of my projects and patterns can be found there and they are all free!  Join here.