What’s your favorite holiday flower? Today we’re showing you how to make a crepe paper version of a Christmas cactus. This way, you can enjoy it in full bloom for longer than just a few weeks! Follow our tutorial below to make your own version for the holiday season. Another great one to craft alongside this one is our crepe paper poinsettia.
Make Your Own Christmas Cactus
The Christmas cactus is the perfect plant to craft during fall or winter. We made our crepe paper Christmas cactus with traditional red flowers. But you could make your own version with pink, orange, yellow, or white flowers.
We crafted our crepe paper Christmas cactus to look just like the real thing—with flattened leaf-like stems that hang downwards and bright, colorful flowers.For the flowers, we used our extra fine crepe paper and for the stems we used our double-sided crepe paper. We also used art markers and Panpastels to color our petals and stamen.
Since you are only painting one side of the crepe paper with a light coat of Mod Podge, it’s fine to cut this on a cutting machine (on your Cricut Maker, use the Denim setting with the rotary blade). Place the crepe paper on the mat with the Mod Podge facing up.
If you make this Christmas cactus or one of our other holiday projects, we’d love to see it! Make sure to share your DIY creations with us using the hashtag #MadeWithLia. We may just repost it on our social pages or in our weekly email.
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Tools
- Cutting Machine (recommended)
- Scissors
- Detail Scissors
- Pinking Shears — Zig Zag
- Paintbrush
- Pliers/Wire Cutters
- Curling Tool
Materials
- Lia Griffith Extra Fine Crepe Paper in Cherry (from Enchanted Garden Collection) and Linen (from Secret Garden Collection)
- Lia Griffith Double Sided Crepe Paper in Ferns + Moss
- Art Markers — Blick Studio Markers in Canary Yellow (014) and Magenta (077)
- PanPastel® Artist Pastel – Magenta 430.5
- Floral Wire – 24-Gauge Paper Covered Green
- Tacky Glue or Art Glitter Glue
- Mod Podge – Matte
Instructions
- 1. Gather tools and materials.
- Using a paint brush, paint 4 sheets of 12×10” double sided green crepe paper with Mod Podge.
- Cut the crepe paper according to template notes using scissors or a cutting machine.
- Use tacky glue to attach the small piece of white crepe to the tip of a wire.
Full tutorial available for members. Join here.
Like This DIY Project?
Excited to make more crafts for the holidays? Make sure to browse our Thanksgiving projects as well as our Christmas crafts. If you’re just a fan of cacti plants in general, we have some other fun cactus crafts on our site, too.
To make this project and many more, become a member! As a member, you get access to all of our SVG cut files, PDF templates, and step-by-step instructions to make your own paper flowers, home décor, and more.
For video tutorials, stop by our YouTube channel. And for more DIY inspiration, follow us on Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Happy crafting! ~ Lia and team
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Are you having trouble? Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help you out.
25 Comments
This is a continuation of my speech yesterday. I have heard from Lia since then. She said she would cut first then mod podge both sides. So I mod podge the back of mine after I cut them. I did not like mod posing the whole sheet for two reasons. The paper shrinks and it does not want to stick to the mat. The discovery I made with mod pidgins after cut…they roll up. If someone with a cameo 4 makes this plant, please share your experience. Thank you for reading
Jean
Lia
Thank you for answering me about the mod podge. I saw it after I wrote my speech. I just wanted to let people with the silhouette know what I went through. I put a light coat and I think had I mod podge both sides it wouldn’t have cut at all. I hope I didn’t offend you with my speech.
Oh, no worries! Lol. I will check with Meagan (the designer) about this. I would cut the pieces before I Mod Podge. But you can also do a test cut first and try some different settings.
It says to mode poge one side then later to do both sides. Can you please tell me which it is?
You will want to mod podge one side and then let it dry before you add the mod podge to the second side.
I was with a computer for a while. I had down loaded the file and had read the instructions. Just got up and running again only to find I should a put Mod Podge on one side. I applied it to both and they have dried for around a week. Since my circut machine died at the same time I am scared to damage it. Will having podge on both sides matter?
It should not matter if you are using a rotary blade.
I assume you apply the mod podge to the double-sided crepe paper before you cut it on the Cricut. Is this true? Also, if I was to cut the mod-podged treated double-sided crepe paper, what setting would you recommend for the Cricut Maker?
Since you are only painting one side of the crepe paper with a light coat of Mod Podge, it’s fine to cut this on the Cricut (Denim setting with the rotary blade). Place the crepe paper on the mat with the Mod Podge facing up.
How many sheets of the double sided crepe paper do you need to make 30 stems?
Hi Kate,
You will need about 3 12×9.8 sheets of double sided crepe paper to make 30 stems. You should have plenty of crepe paper in one sleeve of double sided to make this plant with 30 stems!
I am just to make this. This will be the first time I try one of your patterns without the aid of a video. So, I am wondering how you arranged the 30 stems you used to fill the pot in the example you posted.
Thanks, Kate
Hi, Kate
To arrange the stems you can place some floral foam into your pot and push each stem wire into the foam to arrange, or you can use floral tape to hold the base of each stem together and then push it into the foam as one thick stem. There is a good example of this method in the Xanadu Plant photo tutorial linked here https://liagriffith.com/frosted-paper-xanadu-plant/
Are both sides of the green paper painted with mod pudge, or just one?
Both sides but you will want to let the first side dry completely before painting the mod podge on side 2.
I am a member and all of a sudden I can not print
anything after my “password”. My computer won’t let me go any further.
I hope you understand me.
This is going on for a few weeks and I don’t know how to fix it.
Thank you
Marilyn Gruba (marilyngruba@aol.com
Hi Marilyn, can you email us with more details so we can help? hello@liagriffith.com
I just purchased the paper I need to make the Christmas Cactus. What kind of pot did you use?
Thanks, Shirley
Hi Shirley,
We used a small cement pot and spray painted it copper! 🙂
I am going to make this as a gift. I will need to ship it. Can I use a paper mache pot? If I use a cement pot the shipping will be a lot more. Any ideas what I can put in bottom of pot to keep it from falling over?
Thanks Shirley
Hi Shirley,
We would recommend gluing a few river rocks or coins in the bottom of the pot to weigh it down! 🙂
Hi I live in India. How can I become a member? Can you tell me the cost of membership in indian rupees.
We’d love you to join us! You can see our membership options here: https://liagriffith.com/membership/
I can’t wait to make this! Can you give me an idea of how many stems from each size are in your sample?
We put in about 30 stems to fill the pot we chose 🙂