Vellum Paper Air Plants
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A Botanical Balancing Act
Hanging terrariums have been extremely trendy the last couple of years, especially as people realize how easy it is to care for succulents. These terrariums will usually feature a mix of botanicals, one of them being the irresistibly whimsical air plant. In nature, air plants are uniquely interesting – they grow and balance on top of tree branches without needing soil to thrive. We are slowly discovering how wonderful of a material vellum is for making paper botanicals (see our silver dollar eucalyptus branches!), so when we started brainstorming a design for paper air plants we thought it would be a great opportunity to use vellum.
Tools & Materials
- Craft Scissors
- High-Temp Hot Glue Gun
- Translucent Vellum Paper – Green or Clear
- Lia Griffith Frosted Craft Paper – Succulent Pack, or Conifer Pack
- Cotton Spun Balls – 30mm or 1.5″ Foam Ball
Steps
- Gather the tools and materials listed above.
- Cut your paper according to the template at the bottom of the post. Use the SVG with a cutting machine or the PDF version if you are cutting by hand.
- Using the edge of the scissors curl the leaves. Curl the bottom portion slightly and in the opposite direction of the top portion.
- Glue four of the smallest vellum leaves to the foam ball so they are touching in the middle.
Full tutorial available for members to download below.
Tips
This project will go faster with a cutting machine, but at the same time it is still easy to make if you are cutting by hand. If you are using a machine, we always recommend cutting on a slightly higher setting than suggested – we cut our vellum pieces on the light cardstock setting. When you are making your paper air plants, feel free to craft a variety of sizes using the same general technique. As you can see, we also made a smaller plant with darker greens using a 3/4″ foam ball and text weight papers from Paper Papers.
More Inspiration
Once you have made your air plants, you can style them around your house in glass bowls, or in DIY geometric centerpieces like the ones in our photos. For more paper air plant options, don’t miss our crepe paper succulents – combining the vellum and crepe versions could create some really interesting visual texture. Browse through all of our paper botanical tutorials for inspiration, and head over to our membership page to learn how you can start empowering your creative side. See you there! ~ Lia & Team
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Discussion
Ask Lia or the community!
13 Comments
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Nancy
May 19, 2021 at 4:01pm
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Lia
May 20, 2021 at 6:16am
@Nancy
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Kristin
April 22, 2021 at 12:24pm
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Lia
April 22, 2021 at 8:25pm
@Kristin
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Kristin
April 19, 2021 at 12:10am
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Lia
April 19, 2021 at 7:03am
@Kristin
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Beverley
March 28, 2020 at 12:28pm
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Lia
March 30, 2020 at 10:36pm
@Beverley
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Karen
October 24, 2017 at 5:51pm
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Lia
October 25, 2017 at 10:06am
@Karen
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Lia
October 25, 2017 at 10:39am
@Karen
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penny
October 18, 2017 at 4:05am
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Lia
October 18, 2017 at 8:48am
@penny
Leave a CommentThere is no link to the Tutorial.
Thanks for letting us know! The tutorial is available now.
What cricut paper setting do you use for text weight paper?
We have the most success using a standard mat with a fine point blade, set on the Copy Paper +more setting, or on the light card stock setting.
Any paper and vellum brand/color substitutions? Cricut paper is out of stock.
Yes I just updated the post with new links!
Can I do these with crepe paper
Hi Beverly,
You could make these with crepe paper, be sure that the grain lines in the crepe paper run along the length of the leaves 🙂
I’m having trouble when I get to the larger leaves. Do I do those the same as the little ones? ex: wrap around bottom of ball and glue the leaf to the top? Do you have a photo of what the bottom part of the ball looks like when finished?
The big leaves you glue to the bottom of the ball, with a bit more glue to curve them around and up the ball (same as the small leaves). Step #8 in the photo tutorial shows the bottom. Where all the leaves overlap on the bottom it is covered with a circle piece.
Yes, glue to the bottom and up again around the middle as you did with the smaller leaves. #8 in the photo tutorial shows the bottom when finished!
Beautiful but one question – how many leaves do you cut? The template only has a few and doesn’t look to be enough to cover the sphere or make as full as yours look
Thanks! The PDF template indicates cutting 8 of each, but you can certainly use more if you want a fuller plant!
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