Miniature flowers are a super easy way to add colour, realism and cuteness to your dollhouse, DIY kit or box room. There are multiple ways to make miniature flowers, from using tissue paper to modelling them out of polymer clay.
For the majority of felt, paper and fabric flower tutorials below you’ll need some basic equipment so it’s worth investing in the following, if you don’t have them already:
- hot glue gun
- floral wire – this is thin green wire used in flower arranging
- sharp scissors
As well as these, you might want to invest in a flower and/or leaf paper punch for making paper flowers. These are like single hole punches but instead of making little circles, they make little flowers! There are lots of different ones to choose from, I got this mini paper flower punch from Amazon as it was the smallest one I could find. I chose the daisy flower as it’s a versatile design for making a range of different flowers.
Below, are lots of different ways to make miniature plants, so just find the one that works for you!
Miniature DIY Felt Flowers
Depending on the technique you use, flowers made out of felt don’t always look realistic, but they do always look cute! Felt works particularly well for the soft petals of roses.
Supplies needed for making felt roses
In the tutorial below, the crafter uses:
- pink felt for the petals – cut this into a 1cm wide strip and long enough so you can cut four petals into it (skip to 0.44 in the video below!)
- green felt for the leaves – cut approx 2cm x 1cm so it’s large enough for you to cut three leaf shapes into it.
- a toothpick coloured in green for the stem – you could also use green floral wire. This is trimmed down with pliers, but sharp scissors would also work.
- scissors for cutting the felt (the crafter uses curved nail scissors to make the petals – a genius idea!)
- a hot glue gun for assembling the roses
Once you’ve cut the felt out and trimmed the toothpick to size, apply hot glue to the bottom of the felt petal strip and wrap this around the stem. Do the same with the leaves.
When the flower is assembled, let it dry for a few minutes and then fluff out the petals and leaves.
The scale in the video below looks to be more suited to Barbie dolls rather than the 1:12 scale I usually work to. So watch this space for a felt flower tutorial for smaller scale projects!
For techniques for making different types of felt flowers, try the video below. All you’ll need is scissors, a glue gun and felt!
TOP TIP: If you want to make your flowers look more realistic, you can buy, or make your own mini stamen for the centre of your flowers. You can make your own by dipping a wallpaper brush bristle into PVA glue so it forms a little ball on the end. Let it dry, paint it and you have a miniature stamen which will add realism to your tiny flowers.
Miniature DIY Paper Flowers
There are a huge variety of techniques used to create miniature flowers from paper. These range from simply punching flower shapes out of paper to individually handcrafting flowers from tissue paper.
Miniature DIY Paper Wisteria Vine
in the video below, the crafter uses the following materials to make a beautiful miniature wisteria plant:
- purple crochet twine
- purple tissue paper
- a mini flower stamp (these are similar to hole punches but produce a minute flower shape instead of a circle)
- craft glue
- tweezers to make attaching the flowers to the twine stem much less fiddly!
- brown craft paper wrapped around two metal wires and twist together to create the wisteria vine (skip to 3:58 in the video below for details on how to do this)
- grey paint to add texture to the vine
- wisteria leaf pattern – the crafter made hers herself but I plan to use a leave shaped paper punch
- green paint to paint the printed leaves
Wisteria is a climbing plant so this DIY project would look awesome on the side of a dollhouse or DIY miniature kit.
Put the vine against the wall of your dollhouse – this is important as once the leaves and flowers are attached it’s very difficult to move the plant. Below, the crafter has placed the vine in a plant pot but you could also ‘plant’ it directly into the base board by applying lots of glue to the bottom of the vine.
Once in place, attach the flowers to the top of the vine so they hang down and then cover the top of the vine with your miniature leaves.
The method used to create the vine for the wisteria plant in this example can also be used to create other plants such as climbing roses or clematis.
Miniature DIY Paper Chrysanthemum
Ok so I’m not 100% sure the flower in this video is actually a chrysanthemum but it looks close enough! This is one of the easiest flowers to make and all you need to make it is:
- coloured paper – one colour for the petals and green for the stalk
- glue
- tweezers
- dark brown and red paint for adding details
Check out the video for a full tutorial. These flowers would be a great size for a Barbie house.
Miniature DIY Paper Daisy Flower
There aren’t many tutorials out there that show you how to make really small flowers from paper, but this is one of the smallest I could find.
For this you’ll need:
- card stock in the colour of your choice
- a mini flower paper punch (or a few in different sizes if you have them)
- glue
- a crochet hook
- a pin with a flat head (or one with a round head would be even better!)
All you need to do is punch out multiple flower designs from card stock and slide these onto the pin so that the flat end of the pin becomes the centre of the flower.
To make the leaves, use your larger flower paper punch and punch out a flower in green card.
Trim the green petals down so they look like leaves (skip to 4:36 in the video below to find out how to do this) and then side these onto the needle too.
Check out the video for a paper daisy walk through.
Miniature DIY Paper Morning Glory Vine
Morning glory is a beautiful climbing vine that looks lovely in miniature window boxes or trailing from hanging baskets. Alternatively, like the wisteria above, you can add the vines to your dollhouse wall. But to make it as realistic as possible, add a little trellis for the plant to ‘climb up’ as morning glory won’t stick to a wall by itself.
The tiny vines in this tutorial look similar to 1:12 scale so are ideal for most dollhouses.
All you’ll need to complete this tutorial is:
- a piece of A4 size coloured paper
- green art paper 80grams
- a hole punch
- scissors
- glue
- floral wire
- tweezers
- clay ball tool
- white paint
- white gel pen
Buy Miniature Paper Flowers
If you just can’t wait to customise your model then you can buy paper flowers from craft shops that sell scrapbooking or card making products. Paper flowers are staples of the card making world!
These pastel coloured flowers from Hobbycraft are very delicate and just about the right scale for a bunch of flowers for a dollhouse. Just glue some floral wire onto the base of a few flowers for an instant bouquet!
AllaboutflowersShop on Etsy sells huge range of flowers in different colours and sizes, some are as small as 4mm, making them ideal for mini modelling.
If you want to do some of the crafting yourself, but don’t want to buy any special equipment or source materials from lots of different places, then mini flower kits are your best choice.
These kits come with everything you need to create miniature blooms, in most cases you just need to have tweezers and glue to construct the flowers.
TheMiniatureGarden on Etsy sells some beautiful little kits that are 12:1 scale, including this hydrangea kit.
Miniature DIY Polymer Clay Flowers
The main methods of creating miniature flowers from polymer clay are using moulds or handmaking them. Before we look at these techniques in more detail, let’s take a look at some other options that might suit your crafting style.
Polymer Clay Cane DIY Flowers
You can use polymer clay canes that have floral patterns make miniature flowers but once cut, these are flat disks, so won’t have the depth and detail of moulds or handmade flowers.
However, you can use canes to make individual petals and then attach these together to make beautiful flowers.
In this tutorial below, the crafter makes delicately shaded flower petals by using polymer clay canes.
Using Miniature Cutters For DIY Polymer Clay Flowers
Miniature cutters are another option for making miniature flowers but again, if you’re using a flower shaped cutter, you’ll have to add detail to the design to give the flower depth.
The alternative is to use a cutter to create the petals individually and then attach them together. To do this, you’ll need to buy tiny cutters from specialist sellers on Etsy, even the smallest ones I could find from polymer clay brands would be too large for individual petals.
Using Moulds To Make Miniature Polymer Clay Flowers
Miniature polymer clay flower moulds are used regularly in jewellery making, so they’re easy to find in craft shops or online on Etsy, such as these miniature silicone flower moulds.
Using a mould is probably the easiest and quickest way to craft flowers but they do have the drawback that your individual flowers will all be one colour, unless you choose to paint them after they’re cured. Also, depending on how many moulds you buy, your flowers may all look the same! These aren’t necessarily bad things, but just things to consider when you’re deciding which method to try.
Moulds are a great way to create very detailed flowers, but only if you use the right technique. In the video below, you can see the best way of gaining the most detail from your flowers when using miniature moulds.
How To Hand-Craft Miniature Polymer Clay Flowers
There are so many different ways to make polymer clay flowers without using moulds, cutters or canes. Making them in this way is the best way to create very small detailed flowers which are perfect for dollhouses.
Before we begin, here are some top tips for making and baking miniature polymer clay flowers:
- Make the petals and leaves on a silicone surface – the easiest thing to use is the back of a silicone mould. The silicone will give just enough grip and flexibility to make it easier to craft the clay petals with a ball tool.
- If you find your petals keep breaking a part as you work the clay on the silicone, it could be that your clay is too hard. You’ll need to go back to the conditioning stage and condition the clay until it’s soft. Alternatively add a little liquid clay to it to soften it up.
- If the clay feels too sticky and it’s sticking too much to the silicone surface, then you’ll need to remove some of the moisture from the clay by adding a little bit of baby powder or cornstarch to it.
- The smaller your project, the more tools you’ll be likely to need so you can be as precise as possible when crafting tiny details. At the very least, you’ll need a small ball tool, but a dental tool and sharp craft knife will also be useful.
- As with any polymer clay miniature, make sure the oven is at the correct temperature for the brand of clay you’re using and that you bake your model for at least the length of time recommended on the packet. You can find out more about baking miniature polymer clay models with our guide How Do I Bake Small Polymer Clay Models Without Burning Them?
TOP TIP: If you’re having trouble with sticky polymer clay, read our guide How To Stop Polymer Clay From Sticking To Surfaces, Rolling Pins And Moulds.
Miniature DIY Polymer Clay Roses
Making anything in miniature can be very fiddly, but in the video below, this crafter uses silicone moulds to work and stretch out the clay into realistic petal shapes.
By wrapping multiple miniature ‘sheets’ of clay around a central ball of clay, the crafter is able to create a delicate ultra-real rose. You’ll definitely need a small ball toll to create these flowers as the crafter in the video uses this to attach the the tiny petals and leaves to the rose.
Miniature DIY Polymer Clay Poppies
The warm red of poppy petals will brighten up any dollhouse bouquet or garden. In the video below, the crafter uses a very similar technique to the video above, she wraps petals around a ball which forms the centre of the flower. When making the poppies, the crafter adds an ultra-realistic touch of multiple black stamens around the yellow centre of the poppy.
There are many different ways to create a flower stem and in this video, the crafter uses polymer clay to make the stem as it creates a slight bend at the top of the stem, as if the stem is bending under the poppy’s weight.
Miniature DIY Polymer Plant Pots And Vases
Once you’ve made all these plants, you’ll need something to put them in! Some larger plants, like the paper wisteria above, look great ‘planted’ directly into the ground, but smaller inside plants will need to be displayed in a plant pot or a vase.
Below are some of the best ideas for displaying your miniature floral creations.
Miniature Polymer Clay Plant Pot
One of the easiest ways to make a mini plant pot is to craft it out of polymer clay. All you need to make the plant pot below is:
- Polymer clay for the plant pot and the soil
- A clay blade
- A clay roller
You can be as creative as you like with the colour by choosing a different colour for the rim, or painting a design of your choice onto the polymer clay once it’s cured.
Recycled Toothpaste Cap Plant Pot
The teeny caps on products such as toothpaste and glue can easily be recycled into miniature plant pots.
All you need is a toothpaste cap, then glue in some foam into the cap (packing foam is ideal), some brown paint and that’s it!
The crafter in this tutorial also shares the genius idea of using small clippings from a full-size plastic floral display as miniature flowers! Definitely one I’m going to try!
Miniature Basket Planter From Garden Twine
This is one of my favourite ideas for a miniature planter from one of my favourite YouTubers. Seriously, if you want to make modern miniature models check out Square to Spare on YouTube!
Using foam board, glue and some brown garden twine, the crafter makes an incredible looking basket planter, so easy and so good!
Skip to 4:20 in the video below to see how she does it!