Paper! Thick and thin, white and colored, newspaper and landscape. We meet her every day, when we write a letter or read a book, in the store, when our purchases are packed, in transport, when we get a ticket. We are used to it and don’t think about it; that was a time when there was no paper, and to express their thoughts and feelings, a person had to scratch various patterns, scenes of his life and hunting on the rocks of caves with a sharp stone.

Paper! Such a familiar and necessary material for us is one of the greatest inventions of mankind. Along with the wheel, compass and computer. Since its invention, paper has become an active means of communication between people.

They say >, but books are printed on paper. Means. This definition applies to her to some extent. Of course, paper is as short-lived as stone. But it will help preserve the accumulated knowledge and invaluable cultural heritage of the past for future generations.

The invention of paper was preceded by millennia of searching for material suitable for recording speech and transmitting knowledge and experience. At first, stone was used as such material. Then clay tablets appeared. On prepared thin bricks of raw clay, special characters - hieroglyphs - were pressed out with sticks. It was much easier to carve or carve into stone. Then the bricks were fired, and they became hard, but quite brittle. Such letter tiles could already be sent over long distances. However, people never stopped looking for more convenient and easier materials for writing. This is how wooden tablets appeared, which were covered with wax. Entries on such tablets were made with a style - a special stick. One end, which was pointed for writing. And at the other end there was a spatula to rub in the wax in case of a mistake. But different trees were used in different countries, in China, for example. They burned hieroglyphs on bamboo or its bark. In Novgorod they wrote in style on birch bark, and today archaeologists, during excavations of cultural layers of the 11th - 14th centuries, find numerous birch bark letters and promissory notes.

In ancient Egypt, papyrus, which grows along the Nile, was used for writing. Writing material was made from the stems of this plant. Records made on papyri. Still preserved.

In the 2nd century BC. e. in the city of Pergamum they began to produce a new material for writing, which, after the name of the city, was called >. It was very thin, durable and expensive, specially treated leather, on which important notes were made. This material has served people for many centuries. By the way, this name has survived to this day, only now it is the name given to special greaseproof paper used for packaging and other technical purposes. In Rus', parchment began to be made in the 15th century for state documents. Laws and especially valuable books and records. Parchment gave way only to paper, which is believed to have been invented in the 2nd century in China.

The making of paper is usually associated with the name of the Chinese Cai Lun and dates back to 105 AD. However, paper began to be produced in China even earlier.

ZHI, which was invented by Lun.

Northern China, 105 AD. Yellow banks of the Yellow River. Luo Yang, Palace of the Emperors of the Han Dynasty. A modest courtier named Cai Lun presents Emperor He with several rectangular sheets of unusual yellowish material.

What is this? - asked the emperor.

Zhi, Your Majesty,” Lun replied, “you can write and draw on it.” You can also use it to paste over windows and make tubes for fireworks.

The emperor liked the zhi (paper) so much that he gave Cai Lun the title of marquis.

Thus a great invention was born. The best thing that human civilization has created in its history. The Chinese kept the recipe for paper secret for a long time in order to maintain a monopoly on its production and trade profitably with neighboring countries. But soon paper production technology was mastered in India and the countries of Indochina. In these countries they learned to make paper from various rags. Sails, nets, ropes. And in Japan they used tree bark, and especially mulberry bark, and soon Japanese paper far surpassed the quality of Chinese paper, which was made from bamboo stems.

The Arabs did not lag behind in their search for better paper production technology. They used rags soaked in water. Grinding them between rotating millstones. Thus, improving the very process of manual paper making, which was used by the Chinese. There is a lot of paper all over the world. Arab caliphs began to create huge libraries. In China and Japan, their papers began to be used to make various items for religious ceremonies. Amulets. Decorations. Screens, and even insert transparent paper into windows instead of glass.

In Europe, paper began to be produced only in the 12th century, first in Italy and then in France. England. Holland and Germany.

Paper was imported into Russia from France and Holland. Paper production began only in the 16th century, at a paper mill built near Moscow, in the village of Ivanteevka. The second and third mills, replacing the first one that burned down, were built at the end of the 17th century. One of them was built on the Pakhra River, by order of Patriarch Nikon, and the second on the Yauza River. But they produced little paper, and most of it still had to be imported.

Only under Peter I were European-style paper mills built. In 1716 in Krasnoe Selo. A paper manufactory opened near St. Petersburg, and four years later a paper mill appeared in St. Petersburg itself. To develop the paper business, Peter I issued a decree: >. Rags were paid well from the royal treasury, because it was a valuable raw material for paper production. In the 18th century, only 20 large factories operated in Russia, but by the beginning of the 19th century there were already 88 of them. Then paper-making machines appeared, which sharply increased paper production, and by decision of the tsarist government, the import of paper from other countries stopped.

A paper mill crushing rags into one mass.

2. What is paper made from?

Making paper is a complex process. Now, unlike in the past, paper is mainly made from coniferous trees, although the raw material for preparing paper pulp can be waste paper: old books, magazines. Newspapers, rags. Taking into account the need to protect the nature around us and the catastrophic decline of coniferous forests, scientists have created new technologies and are looking for new synthetic materials for paper production. (By the way, one ton of waste paper saves about 4 m2 of wood from being cut down).

Nowadays, paper has become a universal material. It is used not only for publishing books, magazines and newspapers. They print postcards and albums on it, draw with pencil and watercolors, make student notebooks from it, and use it in medicine, electrical and radio engineering, and various types of industry. Paper is used to make tablecloths and sheets, disposable tableware and handkerchiefs, bags and food packaging, and much, much more - too many to list.

We are convinced that paper is a universal and affordable material. Using it for writing and drawing, people couldn't help but notice the paper itself. It turned out that by simply folding a blank sheet of paper you can get amazing figures and objects, and if you take scissors or a sharp knife, then an excellent ornament will come out of it.

This is how the now traditional art of origami and paper cutting was born.

1. Types of paper and its application.

I decided to find out: what types of papers exist and what are they used for?

It turns out that more than 600 types of paper are produced:

Newspaper,

Paper for printing books, magazines, covers

Writing, postal, copier paper

Drawing paper

Packaging or wrapping paper

Colored glossy paper

Velvet paper

Golden and silver paper (candy wrapper)

Shagreen paper (embossed, leather look)

Self-adhesive paper

Copy paper

Reactive or absorbent paper (blotting paper)

It is used:

* For writing and printing (books, magazines, newspapers, notebooks)

* Finishing material (wallpaper)

* Ornamental material (origami, papier-mâché)

* Packaging material (candy wrappers, foreign currency, bags, boxes)

* Cleaning material (toilet paper, napkins)

* Money production

* Substrate for applying chemical reagents (photo paper, indicator paper, sandpaper)

So, it turns out that today various figures are folded out of paper, Christmas tree decorations are made (garlands, snowflakes), silhouettes and napkins are cut out, openwork designs and compositions, bookmarks and ornaments. And artistic design from paper gave impetus to many areas in science and art. Expressiveness, clarity, durability and low cost - these qualities predetermined the long life of paper as a source material for creativity. It is used to weave and make three-dimensional toys and models.

2. Production technology

To prepare paper, you need plant substances with sufficiently long fibers, which, when mixed with water, will give a homogeneous, plastic, so-called. paper pulp. Semi-finished products for paper production can be:

Wood pulp or cellulose;

Cellulose of annual plants (straw, cane, hemp, rice and others);

Semi-cellulose;

Waste paper;

Rag half-weight;

For special types of paper: asbestos, wool and other fibers.

Paper production consists of the following processes:

Preparation of paper pulp (grinding and mixing components, sizing, filling and coloring of paper pulp);

Production of paper pulp on a paper-making machine (dilution with water and cleaning the pulp from impurities, casting, pressing and drying, as well as primary finishing);

Final finishing (calendering, cutting);

Sorting and packaging.

3. By collecting waste paper, we will save trees!

How many sheets of paper can be made from one tree? It is believed that from one tree, about 12,000 sheets of standard writing or printing paper can be made. But still, since the amount of paper consumed today is enormous, it is not difficult to predict that huge damage could be caused to forests.

In some countries, up to 50 percent of paper is made from wood chips, waste from the wood processing industry that would otherwise end up in landfills.

However, it is possible to produce the required amount of paper without depleting natural resources. After all, trees can be grown and paper can be recycled.

We learned from the media that the Nizhnevartovsk poultry farm was faced with the problem of a shortage of packaging. Every day the factory requires about a thousand paper cassettes. And the nearest plant for the production of egg substrates is a thousand kilometers away. The management of the poultry farm is going to make containers on its own, but this requires raw materials. Therefore, the company’s employees turned to Nizhnevartovsk residents with a request to donate waste paper.

Our class decided to take part in solving this problem. We started collecting waste paper, and in a month we gained: 121 kg.

As you know, 25 school notebooks can be made from 1 kilogram of paper. With our share, according to our calculations, we have > 3025 notebooks.

We will show this with the help of a video lesson at the end of the article - and suggest how the results of your work can be applied in practice.

Homemade paper and its uses are many and varied. Basically, almost anywhere paper is used, homemade paper can be used. But with a few nuances. So, homemade paper differs from regular paper in that it:

• thicker,
• less smooth
• less smooth
• sometimes a little less durable,
• more beautiful,
• more pleasant to the touch,
• much more unusual than regular paper.

Thus, if you want to achieve the described advantages, then let’s start making homemade paper.

Homemade paper is very easy to make.

The main stages of making homemade paper:

1. Prepare cellulose mass.
2. Add adhesive and plasticizing substances to the mixture.
3. Add decorative elements to the mixture.
4. Form a sheet of paper.
5. Add decorative elements (others).
6. Dry the sheet of paper.
7. Use the resulting homemade paper.

Well, now let’s go through each stage in more detail. And at the end we’ll talk about using homemade paper.

Preparation of pulp for homemade paper.

The main idea of ​​the preparation is to make a paste of as small pieces of cellulose mixed with water as possible. Suitable sources of cellulose are:

• paper napkins;
• toilet paper;
• paper egg cartons;
• newspapers;
• shoe wrapping paper;
• Plain white printer paper.

They say that even old waste fabric is used to make paper. That is, there is also cotton paper. In theory, the procedure with it is the same as with regular paper - divide it into fibers and form a sheet. But there are no practical results on the Internet yet, so we will limit ourselves to what we have - homemade paper made from paper.

The paper for making paper needs to be torn into small pieces (the smaller the better) and soaked for a while - from 1 hour to a day, as long as you have enough patience. By the way, it is not necessary to use paper of one color; you can also make multi-colored designer paper from multi-colored paper for applique. Cellulose does not dissolve in water, so over-wetting will do no good. The purpose of soaking is to make the torn pieces of paper saturated with water and swell, further disintegrating into fibers, which is what we want to achieve. But in fact, you can do without soaking.

Now you need to turn the scraps of paper into pulp. A regular kitchen blender works well for this. Beat the mixture for about 5 minutes. Take a wide container, a regular basin will do, and pour in the contents of the blender. If the mixture is too thick, dilute it with warm water and mix thoroughly. If the mass turns out to be too liquid, place it in a colander and let the excess water drain (you can press down if necessary). The consistency of the resulting cellulose should resemble sour cream.

And now, having prepared the cellulose mass, you can proceed to adding additives to it.

Adding additives to pulp for paper making.

The first thing you need to add to the present cellulose mass is PVA glue. Without this agent, the paper will be very brittle. You should also take into account that too much PVA glue will make the paper look like oilcloth, with a smooth surface of dried PVA glue. But it will be durable :) In fact, you select the desired proportion experimentally - the more glue, the more it is visible, and the stronger the paper. And vice versa. Depending on how durable or textured you want your products to be.

But there is also a general proportion: for a sheet of A5 paper you need about half a teaspoon of PVA glue. Well, or a whole teaspoon.

In addition, starch and/or detergent can be added to the paper pulp to make the cellulose fibers slide past each other more easily and the paper is formed with fewer lumps and mounds. But, on the other hand, lumps and mounds give the paper texture - so adding or not adding plasticizers is at your discretion.

Next, what can be added to the pulp at this stage are decorative elements. The simplest decorative elements are the strongest black tea or very strong coffee. In addition to color, these additives also add flavor to the paper. You can also paint paper with any water-soluble paints.

In addition to tea and coffee, you can add

• various grains,
• foil,
• wool,
• pieces of bark,
• twigs,
• threads,
• beads,
• chopped straw
• and so on

- anything small enough to form beautiful inclusions.

Forming a sheet of homemade paper.

In order for paper to be made from the resulting and decorated cellulose mass, it needs to be formed—to make flat sheets. Well, a variety of devices are used for this. What almost all devices have in common is gauze or a mosquito net. That is, a barrier with the smallest possible cell size. Since it is difficult to hold gauze or mosquito net suspended while creating a sheet of paper, they need a backing - something that has large holes and is at the same time durable. The variety of substrates is great. It can be:

• special frames with metal mesh
• hoop
• cat litter box
• just fabric and newspapers.

The main rule when forming a sheet of homemade paper is simple: put gauze / mosquito net on the backing, put a little cellulose mass on top, distribute evenly by shaking or pressing with your hands. You also need to remove excess water. In principle, you don’t have to do this, but then the drying process will take longer. And to remove excess water, you can blot the layer of mass with a sponge until it remains dry. Take your time during the making process. When separating the base from the paper, do not make sudden jerks. If the base does not come off, continue to remove moisture with a sponge.

Well, then you need to put a press on top of the prototype sheet of paper. First, the prototype sheet must be removed from the base - otherwise the cells of the sheet will be imprinted on the paper when it lies under the press. Although it may be beautiful :)

A rule when forming a sheet: the thicker you pour the layer of cellulose, the more your paper will turn into designer cardboard. So you need to take into account the required layer thickness. By the way, before putting the paper under the press, on its surface you can throw:

• corn,
• leaves
• flower petals,
• glitter
• hearts
• etc.

During drying, these additional decorations will be slightly pressed into the paper and stick to it. So the paper will turn out even more unusual and even more creative than if this stage had not taken place.

So, we formed a sheet of paper and put it to dry under a press. Drying takes a day or two. If you are in a hurry, you can iron a slightly dried sheet of paper through the fabric.

By the way, there is also an alternative way to form a paper sheet.

This alternative method occurs without gauze, without backing - only with cloth and newspapers. This method is also suitable when you need to make a lot of paper sheets at one time.

So, lay out a large piece of polyethylene on the bathroom floor, a stack of old newspapers on it, and a cotton rag on top. And place a wad of paper pulp on the rag. Level the mixture with your fingers so that it lies in an even thin layer. The smoother and thinner you lay it out, the better the paper will be. Then pat the surface with your palm or roll it a little with a rolling pin.

Next, wrap the fabric so that it completely covers the layer of paper pulp. Place another piece of cotton rag on top and repeat the operation - spread, level, cover. And so on until you run out of cellulose mass.

Cover the resulting stack (newspapers, layers of paper pulp, fabric) with a board on top and place a weight on it. Use a sponge to remove any excess water. Leave it all to dry overnight. In the morning, unwrap our “sandwich” and carefully place the finished pieces of homemade paper on a dry surface. Wait until the paper is completely dry.

Well, now it’s time to move on to the next stage promised at the beginning:

Using homemade paper.

Homemade paper can be used wherever decoration using paper is needed. So, you can make many versions of such paper, and then use it to cover a photo album, folder, or gift box. That is, homemade paper can be used in such a well-known technique as. That is, where the pasting of paper and fabric is used, and where an unexpected texture or color is exactly what was missing to complete the composition. In addition, homemade paper is very useful when creating one of the types of applique. Collage It will be more alive and more beautiful if you use homemade paper when creating it. Just applique It will also be more noticeable and more creative if there are moments from homemade paper.

The second point where homemade paper can be used is decoupage(covered in more detail in the article “Decoupage technique on furniture”). And in this case, homemade paper, just like with appliqué, serves as separate accents.

But there is an area where homemade paper is the basis of the basics, and does not serve as an accent, in small quantities, but is presented precisely as a main dish. This area is scrapbooking. Scrapbooking (English scrapbooking, from English scrapbook: scrap - scrapping, book - book, literally "book of scrapbooks") is a type of handicraft art that consists of making and decorating family or personal photo albums. This type of creativity is a way of storing personal and family history in the form of photographs, newspaper clippings, drawings, notes and other memorabilia, using a unique way of preserving and communicating individual stories using special visual and tactile techniques instead of the usual story.

Well, an excellent basis for gluing photographs, casts, clippings, and so on is nothing more than homemade paper. Agree, it’s one thing when the story is told on an ordinary photo album. And it’s completely different when a special, beautiful album made with one’s own hand from homemade paper is allocated for a personal story.

Accordingly, in addition to the album, you can use homemade paper to make a book, notebook, envelope, letter, invitation - anything made of paper that needs to be highlighted in comparison with other similar items.

And finally, another large area where homemade paper can be used is. You can draw on plain paper... But when drawing happens on designer, homemade paper - the drawing itself becomes different. And graphic techniques look completely different when the background is not ordinary smooth paper, but corrugated, textured paper, with the addition of various inclusions and blotches (which can not just play the role of a background, but also act as parts of the picture).

That is, when drawing on homemade paper, the range of possibilities for drawing expands.

And finally, a short one on the topic of how to make homemade paper (by the way, there is also a great way to make a frame with a steel mesh; and the procedure itself is slightly different from the one described in the article):

Thus, it is easy to make homemade paper, as well as to use it for a variety of decorative purposes.

Based on materials from http://doll-as-art.livejournal.com/5999.html and http://stranamasterov.ru/node/2770

A paper towel is a convenient replacement for cloth napkins and kitchen rags. The disposable sheet is discarded immediately after use. It is hygienic and practical, and you no longer need to waste time washing and drying kitchen textiles.

Why do we need paper towels? At home, at work, on a picnic or at the dacha, they help keep your hands and face clean. Paper towels take care of greasy stains on the table, dust, dirt and moisture, making apartment cleaning much easier.

We have collected the most non-trivial and practical tips on how to use paper towels at home. Some recommendations will come as a surprise to you.

1. There may not be a clean strainer or piece of gauze in the kitchen, but there are always paper towels. Therefore, in case you urgently need to strain your herbal infusion or coffee, tear off a piece from the roll. Using a napkin, separate the drink from the grounds, and throw the remaining waste into the trash bin along with a disposable paper towel.

2. Here's a life hack for lovers of crispy-skinned meat. The secret of the dish is that before putting the meat in the frying pan, you need to wipe it with a paper towel.

3. If you're used to cooking bacon in the microwave, but don't like cleaning it up, cover the bacon with a paper towel. The taste of the snack will not deteriorate at all, but the walls of the stove will remain clean.

4. Kitchen napkins help not only to cook, but also to store food. For example, thanks to towels you can save lettuce leaves from quickly yellowing. To keep lettuce leaves fresh for as long as possible, use paper towels - just wrap the greens in them and pack them in a bag. The paper will absorb excess moisture, due to which the leaves will deteriorate and rot ahead of time.

5. By the way, when caring for your face, paper towels can be a substitute for cotton pads and napkins. They are great for removing makeup. Cut the roll into two parts and soak in a solution of thermal water, coconut oil, a couple of drops of tea tree oil, and makeup remover. Remove the cardboard core. Face towels should be stored in a plastic container.

How to use a cardboard sleeve

When a roll of paper towels runs out, sometimes it's a shame to throw it away. Handmade lovers and simply practical housewives “reincarnate” cardboard cylinders, coming up with a variety of uses for them. Here are some of them:

• a cardboard sleeve can be an excellent toy for a cat
• By decorating the cylinder with colored paper, you will get a beautiful package in the form of a large candy
• if you place a cardboard in a boot, the leather will not bend or become wrinkled

Now you are aware of the most amazing and most practical ways you can use paper towels. The roll will never lie idle in the kitchen again. And even after using up all the paper napkins, the cardboard cylinder will definitely find an original use in the household.

Prepared by Katerina Vasilenkova

Recently, it has become a fashionable trend to decorate the interior of apartments, houses and banquet halls with huge paper flowers. They attract attention with their originality, bright colors and unusual manufacturing techniques. Although such products are short-lived, they are loved by craftsmen all over the world, because they are not difficult to make, require little material, and are inexpensive. You can update the interior every month, and even more often in celebration rooms.

In this article we will look at how to make paper flowers for the wall with your own hands, and what material you need to prepare for the work. We will share our knowledge about the methods and methods of making different flowers and leaves, how to attach them to the wall and to each other. The photographs presented will help you understand the material presented and choose something interesting for yourself.

Necessary materials

Large DIY paper flowers are made from a variety of materials. Bright and colorful they are obtained from thin isolon from 0.2 mm to 0.5 mm. It is purchased in hardware stores, as it is considered an insulating material. You can cut it with simple scissors, as the sheets are quite soft. It comes in different colors, so it’s easy to choose the one you need for the job.

Simpler DIY paper flowers are made from material with a density of 100 g/m2, rolls of corrugated paper, some products can even be made from thick napkins. The parts are glued together either with hot glue or thick and fresh PVA.

In order to assemble a beautiful and lush flower, you will need: cardboard for cutting out patterns of petals and leaves, a simple pencil for tracing the contours, scissors for cutting out elements. If you are planning to make a rose, then you can bend the flower petals with a knitting needle or a round wooden stick.

To work, free up some space in the room and prepare a flat surface on the table, removing everything unnecessary. Let's start the explanation by making your own flowers from paper napkins.

Dahlias from napkins

For work, purchase large thick napkins. First you need to unfold each one on the table surface, then put several products on top of each other and fold everything like an accordion, turning the product back and forth. When you have a thin strip, bend it in half to accurately determine the center point of the craft. It is on this that you need to tie a ribbon or thin thread that will hold the entire flower. Some craftsmen make small triangular cuts of paper in the middle so that the knot squeezes the napkin as little as possible.

The edges are cut in a semicircle, as can be clearly seen in frame No. 3 in the photo above. When everything is prepared, carefully, so as not to tear the thin leaves, straighten all layers of paper to the middle. You should get a lush flower-ball. Using the end of a thread or thin ribbon, you can hang it on a wall, a chandelier, a cornice, or one above the other, like a garland. The craft will look beautiful lying on a table or shelf.

Using corrugated paper

The principle of making such paper flowers for the wall with your own hands is similar to the previously described method of assembling with an accordion, but it is made from the folds of a whole roll of corrugated paper. Each fold is made at a distance of 6-8 cm from the previous one. The ends are rounded with scissors, and in the center, be sure to reduce the size of the paper by making two triangular cuts. After tying with nylon thread, the layers of paper are carefully straightened in all directions.

To place a center in a contrasting color, press the paper down slightly, making a small indentation. The middle is made up of a strip 10 cm wide, one edge of which is cut into “noodles”. After twisting the prepared strip around a rod (knitting needle, wooden skewer or pencil), coat the end with PVA glue and press it to the last turn. Then attach the finished part to the central point of the flower. The craft is ready!

Thick paper aster

You can assemble a paper flower on the wall with your own hands from many parts. The following sample shows that the product consists of large petals of the same size, arranged in two rows. The central part of the craft is assembled from 3 different parts in increasing order. The middle hides all the joints and is made using a method that we will describe later in the article.

First let's figure out how to do the biggest elements of the job. Cut them all out using one template, folding the sheet in half. At the junction, a round base is glued in the center, onto which all the petals are glued. Start work from the outer circle. The middle is attached last.

Let's look at how to do it further. You will need a long strip of paper, on which frequent cuts are made on top to the same depth with “noodles”. Then roll it around a thin knitting needle, pressing the turns tightly together. The remaining end is attached with PVA glue to the last turn. The result is a voluminous center of the flower, which at the very end of the work is attached to the central point of the craft, smearing the end of the strip with glue. Press down the circle a little so that the glue sets. You can attach such a flower to the wall using double-sided tape in the middle. The petals should remain voluminous.

Lush rose

Making paper flowers with your own hands is easy. For example, such a lush rose, as in the photo below, is made up of petals cut out according to a template. Their size and shape are visible in the lower frames. To ensure that the rose has a natural appearance, the edges of the blanks are twisted around a pencil or using a metal knitting needle. It is enough to stretch the edge on its surface, pressing the workpiece tightly with your finger, and the petal will gracefully curl the end of the paper into a wave.

Begin gluing the petals from the outer edge. An ordinary circle is used as a basis. Each subsequent petal is placed with a slight overlap on the previous one.

Pattern flower

The next option is assembled from multi-colored parts of the same shape, but of different sizes. Each petal consists of four elements. Production begins with black paper flowers. With your own hands, glue the largest parts onto the wall around a small central circle, after first bending the edges with a wave.

Next, attach the parts in order of decreasing size. The middle of the flower looks original. The loops need to be long and thin. To do this, take a wide strip and fold it in half. Only then the edge is cut into “noodles”, and quite thin ones at that. If you do custom work while earning money, then don’t skimp and buy special scissors that have many parallel blades. With one press, several cuts are made at once. This is convenient when you need to make a lot of paper flowers for the wall with your own hands.

When you have cut the center, roll it in the usual way and attach it to the center of the flower from the petals. At the end, press the cut part of the strip in different directions, and attach a small butterfly in the middle.

flower composition

You already understand how to make paper flowers with your own hands. The principle of performing the work is similar in each product. The differences are minor and understandable to an experienced craftsman. For example, in the photo below you can see that burgundy petals cut out according to a template were first attached to the central circle, and the middle is made up of prepared strips of different widths.

When winding the strips onto the rod, the operation was first performed on a thin strip, then the wider part was glued to its edge, and the winding was continued to the end. The edge was attached with PVA to the last turn and the entire center was placed at the center point of a large paper flower. The work is interestingly complemented by carved figured leaves of the same color as the fluffy part of the craft itself.

Crafts from cones

You can decorate walls or doors with paper flowers using cones by gluing them with sharp tips to the center with hot glue. For work, you can use paper of the same color or different ones. A craft in which all the layers are multi-colored, but in harmony with each other, looks beautiful. For example, make the outer layer dark burgundy, the next layer red, then pink, pale pink, and finally lay out the white center.

Cone tubes are made from square sheets of thick paper. Some craftsmen make room decorations from magazine and even newspaper pages.

Additional items

Bright green leaves will decorate any flowers on the wall. They are made in different ways, for example, by making shaped cuts on a sheet folded in half. The corrugated craft looks beautiful. In the example below, we consider the original version of a sheet element assembled from individual parts.

The photo shows that thick colored double-sided paper was used, which holds the required shape well. Rounded arcs with thin edges of different sizes are cut out on the parts folded in half. The fold is carefully smoothed with your fingers. The prepared parts are folded together, pressing them tightly at the base. They are placed in decreasing order of size towards the ends. Some smaller leaves are inserted between larger ones to give the finished product a natural look.

The lower part of the bundle is fastened together first with a stapler, and then pasted over with a thin strip in several layers. The result is spectacular pointed palm leaves that will go well with any wall decoration.

Knowing the principles of making large flowers, you can create your own compositions that match the interior of the room. Bring your creative ideas to life by following our tips. Good luck!

10/03/2018

The not very favorable economic situation in recent years is forcing many people to reduce their expenses and look for optimal ways to save their family budget. If you're thinking about purchasing kitchen utensils, you might be wondering whether it's cheaper to use paper plates or wash dishes.

Paper plates

At the grocery store, a 10-pack of average quality paper plates will cost about one dollar. Cheaper deals can be found online, where 1,000 non-laminated rectangular plates (13 x 19) can be purchased for about $10 without shipping.

If you have a family of 4 who eats at home 3 times a day, using one plate each each time, and you invest in 1000 paper plates, they will last you 83 days or almost 3 months.

Standard plates

The price of standard kitchen plates will depend on whether you prefer glass, regular ceramic or fine porcelain. Here you always have a choice - pay for quality or additional quantity.

Let's say you buy a set of mid-price plates that cost around $20. This is more expensive than 1,000 of the cheapest paper plates, but you won't have to buy more every 3 months, although you need to take into account at least the water tariff if you plan to wash dishes by hand.

Dishwasher

The dishwasher is the "x-factor" in determining the price benefit. Every time you run the dishwasher, you waste water and electricity, which you have to pay for monthly according to local tariffs.

Conclusion

Buying standard plates is more cost-effective if your local water and electricity rates aren't too high and you plan to use the dishwasher once or twice a day. On the other hand, paper plates do not need to be washed, they can simply be thrown away after use, which saves not only water and electricity, but also time, and this is a significant advantage for some people. However, the simplest economic benefit still lies in washing dishes, not in regularly updating them.

By the way, here is one of our previous publications, where we talked about the durability of porcelain tableware. Perhaps this information will also be useful to you.