Cactus Makes Perfect

If you’re looking for a simple and adorable papercrafting project, you’ve come to the right place. These 3D potted paper cactus are much easier to assemble than they look, which is always a quality we like in our DIY projects! The beauty of making paper cacti is that you can still have that trendy design element without having to worry about pricking yourself with real cactus spines. For this reason, these would be great as charming little decorations for a nursery or kid’s room. Of course, you can also use these for everyday home or party decor as well.

Tools

• Cutting Machine (recommended) or X-Acto Blade
• Low Temperature Hot Glue Gun
• Small Paintbrush
• Cricut Scraper or Scissors

Materials

• Text Weight Paper [Pink Lemonade]
• Yes! Paste
• Small piece of Chipboard/Matboard

Steps

1. Gather the tools and materials listed above.
2. Cut out paper pieces according to the template at the bottom of the post. Use a cutting machine with the SVG template, or print the template onto your paper and cut with an x-acto blade.
3. Fold the cactus piece in half lengthwise, matching the edges evenly.
4. Apply Yes! Paste onto one of the outside folded sides of a cactus piece. Use a thin, even coat of paste by smoothing it with the edge of a piece of chipboard or matboard. Layer another folded paper cactus piece on top, matching the outer edges and folded spines. Do not glue the spikey spines together. Repeat a second time to have 3 pieces attached together, like book pages. Repeat this step with the remaining 3 pieces to have two halves to your cactus.
5. Glue the two cactus halves together.
6. Use a small paintbrush to apply a bit more paste if needed to keep the glued edges down.
7. Curl the paper flower petals upward using a Cricut scraper tool or edge of your scissors. Glue together using hot glue with the smallest petal on the inside.
8. Glue flower to the top of the cactus.
9. Fold the long rectangular piece in half lengthwise. This will be the pot rim.
10. Glue the sides of the pot together. Glue the folded rim around the top.
11. Glue the two circles together with paste.
12. Add a dot of hot glue to the base of the cactus and attach to the center of the circle base.
13. Fold open the cactus spines.
14. Pop the cactus with base into the paper pot.

Follow our potted paper cactus photo tutorial below for a visual guide to this craft!

Tips

There are three different cactus designs included in our template so that you can make a variety for your decor. We loved the look of making monochromatic cacti, but of course you can play around with color schemes! Feel free to use a different color of paper for the pot or flowers. You can use hot glue for attaching the layers of paper, but we liked using Yes! Paste because it spreads thinly and dries super fast. When you are finished, the inside of the pot will be hollow, so you can even use these potted paper cactus cuties to store little goodies.

More Inspiration

We love cactus designs, so we actually have a number of cactus DIYs on the site! Find our crepe paper cacti, cactus garland or paper mache cacti for more adorable crafting options. Do you have a cactus craft in mind? Give us your project feedback and suggestions in the comments below and we can try to bring them to life! To start exploring your creativity with us, head over to our membership page to find our membership options. For daily doses of inspiration, find us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. See you there! ~ Lia & Team

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