Paper to Petal: 75 Whimsical Paper Flowers to Craft by Hand Hardcover – Illustrated, August 27, 2013

I love paper arts and either dabble or dive into them depending on my schedule, need to indulge, budget, etc, and I've been committing a greater-than-average amount of time into paper arts booka for the last year. I've got a bookcase of some really cute books, some informative, and some works or art that I will never master. This book has it all, and then some. Photos, text, templates, bound in a really thick book. Not the usual craft book.There is a section devoted to the "examples" they have made for clients, all 75 flowers are magical. The next section describes the materials used to make paper flowers. The fact that they don't force any brand is a plus, if you aren't new to paper arts, you already have most of the materials, except, perhaps, for the stems and centers. The skills section is vital unless you are an expert in creating paper flowers. It is really useful that they have picture and text intermixed and that they break down flowers to their smallest parts. (center, stamen, stem, petal, etc) Each technique is introduced "contextually". So many helpful images of action and steps. Different means of shaping for different paper and a focus on creating rounded, organic forms. Because that is what nature is, correct? Organic, rounded flowers, no matter what colors you use are going to look amazingly real, just like all of the examples in the book, over something straight, flat, and fake. There is none of that in this guide. Not in the images or the writing, or even their style, it is really natural, beautiful and likeable.The how-to section gives you just that for each one of those 75 flowers, broken down to their visual individual parts, and marks the skill level of each one. They are using a scale, of 1,2 or 3,; 1(basic techniques) to 3 (advanced techniques). The authors are so kind as to give us some advice as how someone with a solid 2 level skill could modify a 3 flower project to their strengths, which I find especially helpful, and give you a rubric for mastery at each level. This is something more "high-level" crafters need to include in their guides; not just beginner techniques, not just advanced techniques or looks, but what does the spectrum look like, what does it include? How can I take a project that is too advanced and target it towards my level (What to remove in the flower? What to add to make the project look good, help me improve skills, but not look like my 3rd grader did it?)After the how-tos, as the other reviewers have stated, there are pages of templates to the shapes used for the flower - well over 200. They include a good source guide. One warning to the paper newbie, some of this paper and related materials can be extremely expensive. You can go through and find the materials that work for you and your project(s) at any price point with the variety of resources the authors include.This will be THE paper (handmade) flower book for the year, if not years. What an excellent job this couple has done on their first book (she was an style director at Martha Stewart Weddings and they run a design business), I look forward to seeing more from them!

Great book with beautiful pictures and instructions on how to make floral.I love the tool page very helful.

I pre-ordered this book a while ago because I had previously seen flowers made by the authors. I was extremely excited when I opened my package and saw this book inside. There are SO many amazing flowers in this book and I can hardly wait to get started making some of them. Every page that I turned to was incredible. The flowers pictured are like a present for your eyes. That is how special this book is. I literally have hundreds of craft books but this book will be one of my favorites for many years to come. There are so many different flowers to make in this book and so many ways in which to use them. Rebecca is an extremely gifted artist and she breaks every flower down so that anyone can duplicate the flowers that are made in this book. I really think this book is like a Bible for crepe paper flowers. It is so through and complete and the book is also laid out exceptionally well. There are patterns in the back of the book for the different petals and leaves that are used. There is a layout of the different crepe papers used and even vintage books about crepe paper flowers!!! There is another layout that shows the different scissors and tools used. Another layout features markers, crayons, stickers, paint, glitter, and flower stamens. Every different technique is broken down step by step. Paper to Petal is as close to perfection as any book could possibly be.In the back of the book Rebecca has listed so many different sources in which to buy the supplies. Many of the sources I had never heard of and they will be such a great reference to have. I love that Rebecca and Patrick have included several companies that sell the different crepe papers with different budgets in mind.I am giving a baby shower to a mother expecting twins and I am going to use several of the flowers and leaves in this book to make a sort of jungle like arrangement on one of my walls. I know that with this book by my side I will be able to create a fabulous arrangements.

What I really want to make is huge flowers; 14"-20". Those instructions hide in Pinterest, and I was hoping I would be able to scale the flowers in this book to be very much larger. Jury is out on that point. I have made 14 poppies about 8" across out of a recycled curtain using one of these patterns. Easy enough.The flowers are fun, and whimsical / funky, and I have ideas I didn't have before, and ideas I hadn't seen on Pinterest. I have parts lists, and instructions, and suggestions for making variations on a theme. I got my money's worth from the book.I don't see a problem with the patterns being printed on both sides of the page, by the way. I can't imagine why anyone would need to trace the patterns; if I use a pattern at all (not likely), I will look at the suggested shape and draw something freehand. It's not tool-and-die making.The flowers are mostly created petal-by-petal. There is no speed-flowering here, except for a few frilly wraps.Many of the flowers are variations on a theme, rather than 75 entirely different flowers. I wish there had been a few spiky flowers, like a glad or a bird-of-paradise, or maybe a bromeliad or three. Instead, there are lots of variations on daisies and poppies and peonies. No calla lily.