Kusudama Flower Ball Instructions Part 1- Making Petals

Since posting about these flower balls, a variety of people have asked how to make them.  So, I'm going to go ahead and show you, rather than making you go all over the web and search.  (In fact, I have seen tutorials on these with much more difficult instructions, but the same results.  I'd hate to see you stumble upon one of those and throw in the towel on it.)  Don't let the fact that there are a lot of pictures in this post fool you into thinking this is tricky.  After you make 2 or 3 petals, you won't even need the instructions anymore.  I divided the instructions into 4 parts, just to help you find your spot more easily:
Part 1- Making Petals
Part 2- Joining Petals to Make a Flower
Part 3- Joining Flowers to Make the Ball
Part 4- Simple Variations

So, here we go- feel free to write with a question if something is unclear.

Step 1- Get a square piece of paper.  For this example, our squares are 6 inches.

Step 2- Fold the square in half, point to point.

Step 3- Fold the right bottom corner up to meet the top corner.  (Sorry, my pictures downloaded at different angles, and I'm not sure how to rotate them.)

Step 4- Repeat Step 3 on the left bottom corner. Now, you will have a smaller square.

Step 5- Fold the right side flap back (in half) to meet the edge.

Step 6- Repeat Step 5 on the left flap.

Step 7- Fold the two top points back.

Step 8- Now, the last three steps (5-7) were done to create the creases needed for the next part.  So, you will now unfold the each flap and use the creases to press them down flat.  Here, my son is about to open up the right flap to press it down. (This image flipped to the right 90 degrees)

And here is what it looks like pressed down.

Both sides pressed down.

Step 9- Fold  the little triangle to the back. Do that to both sides.  (When you have figured these out, and want to know an easy variation to this step, see Part 4.)

(Just another angle of the same step.)

  

(Step 9 complete. But, again, blogger flipped the image- this time to the left 90 degrees.)  

Step 10- Fold the right and left flaps in half.

(Step 10 complete)

That's all for the folding!  Now, you're ready glue the sides together to form a petal.  I find a hot glue gun to be the fastest method, but anything will work, even double sided tape. Here, I am gluing one side...

...to its opposite. (Bad picture-but you can see the finished petal below.)

Repeat all the steps to make 5 petals.

It only gets easier from here, this was the longest part of this project.  Now, you are ready for Part 2, joining the petals to make a flower.

Kusudama Flower Ball Part 2- Joining Petals to Make a Flower

Make a flower out of the 5 petals you made in Part 1 by gluing them together. (Any kind of glue or double- sided tape is fine.)

A finished flower! 

To make a Kusudama flower ball, you need 12 of these flowers, or just 6 to make a bouquet. 

In Part 3, you can learn how to connect the flowers to form a ball or bouquet. Or, as you can see, one flower is pretty all by itself!

Kusudama Flower Ball Part 3- Making the Ball

After completing Part 2, you should have either 6 flowers (if you're making a bouquet) or 12 flowers (if you're making a ball).

To make either one, you are going to glue the flowers together.  I have drawn lines on this flower to show you where to glue.

Stick the second flower to the first.

Continue doing the same to the second flower...

...and the next, until you have 5 joined flowers forming a circle.

The space left at the top is the snug home of the 6th flower.  This last petal will be glued to all the others.

This is half of a Kusudama ball.  To complete it, make another half, and glue them together to make a ball.  I have used halves as bouquets to decorate.

For a few simple variations, jump over to Part 4.

Kusudama Flower Ball Part 4- Simple Variations

Now that you have mastered the Kusudama Ball Instructions, here are a few very simple variations. 

In this first variations, you can see the center of the flower is white instead of pink like the petals.

The only thing done differently with this flower is in Step 9 in Part 1 .  Instead of folding the triangular flaps back, fold them forward.  Then, resume with Step 10 of the instructions.

I think this next variation is beautiful.  The petals are white, while the centers have color.

To achieve this look, simply begin with Step 1, only keep the plain side of the square on the outside.

When you get to Step 9, make sure to fold the triangular flaps forward.

Lastly, is a variation in how to fold Step 9...also.  The difference in this flower will be barely noticeable from the original, but it does have a slightly neater appearance.

Instead of folding the triangular flaps all the way to the back of the square, fold them back and tuck them between the paper.

Here is a view of both flaps folded bask and between the paper.  Continue on with Step 10.

Also, in the first Kusudama Flower Ball Post I did, you'll notice I glued beads to the centers of the flowers.  That was like icing on the cake!

You can also see that I made ribbon loops to hang the balls with.  Do this by simply gluing a ribbon on half of the ball before you connect it with the other half.

Hope you find something you like, have fun!  I think I have