Fun Adventures In.... Kusudama Paper Flower Ball

I seen this paper flower ball on Pinterest and thought it was just gorgeous. So I pinned it for a later project. Then the holidays roll around and I am in need of a present for my daughters teacher. With minimal supplies and virtually no budget I thought I would try to make it. Looked easy enough. I practiced on a few pieces of scrap paper until I got all the folds down. Once I got the folds down it was a piece of cake.

For your supplies you are going to need some paper squares. I had some paper from who know where. An old project I imagine. It was lavender on one side and pink on the other. The squares can be any size you want them to be. I made mine 1.5 in x 1.5 in. You might also want a ruler, a pencil and some scissors to cut the paper into squares.
You will also need some glue. I started out with plain school glue. It worked, but it took a while to dry. And I physically had to hold a few of the pieces together while it dried. So I gave up and ended up using my hot glue gun. It was a bit messy only because I was working with smaller areas. Use whatever glue you are comfortable with.
And finally your gonna need whatever decorations you want to use. A ribbon to hang it. Jewels to put on the flowers. Be as creative as you want.

To start you need to fold each square into a petal. I have it shown step by step below. Once you get the hang of it, its not difficult.

Your Square to start with. 

Fold the corners up to form a triangle

Take the bottom corner of your triangle and match it with the top

Repeat on the other side to from a diamond.

Take one of the inside folds of you diamond and line it up with the
matching outside edge of the diamond. Crease the fold.

Repeat with the other side. Because mine was small, I found it helpful
to use a toothpick with the folding.

This is the tricky part. Take the inside edge of your newest fold and
bring it out. Flatten the whole side. Repeat with the other side.

Now take the top part of the sides and fold it down. 

Again, repeat with the other side.

Take the very outside edge and fold it over on the middle crease.

Repeat with the other side to form your diamond again.

Put a dab of glue on the outside edges of you diamond and close.

Your petal is now complete. Once the glue is dry the shape holds up.

Once you make your petals, you can glue them into a flower.
It takes five petals for each flower. 

After you make 12 flowers, you can glue them together in a ball. Its a lot easier to make all the petals at once, then assemble the flowers. To make the ball just glue 6 of the flowers together in circle. (5 flowers around one  flower) Make two halves. Add your ribbon if you want it to hang. Then glue the two halves together. Add any  jewels or glitter if you would like and you are done.

I had fun making it. I think they would be really cute with some bright spring colors. Maybe hanging around a window. Now that I know what I am doing, I plan to make a lot more. In all different sizes.