Make a Tulip Card for Mother’s Day

Practise cutting and folding symmetrical flowers to create this easy three-dimensional tulip. It is a lovely spring card and a useful craft extension to maths learning about symmetrical shapes.

A finished three-dimensional tulip card

You will need

  • A4 light blue card
  • A4 coloured lightweight paper for the flower—we used yellow
  • A5 green paper
  • White paper for printing the template
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors
  • Pencil and pen for the message

What you do

  1. Download the tulip template

    Print the template, then carefully cut out its flower, stem and leaf shapes.

    Cutting out the tulip template shapes
  2. Use the flower template to cut four matching flowers from the coloured paper. Plan their positions first so they all fit on one A4 sheet. Cutting four matching flower shapes
  3. Fold every flower in half vertically along its line of symmetry, from the middle of the bottom edge to the centre point at the top. Folding each flower along its line of symmetry
  4. Fold the first tulip to the left so that only one half is visible. Apply glue to this side. Applying glue to half of a folded flower
  5. Open a second flower and lay it carefully on the glue, sticking it back-to-back with the first and lining up the edges. Joining two folded flower shapes
  6. Repeat the previous two steps with the remaining flower shapes to create a tulip that opens like a three-dimensional fan. The assembled three-dimensional paper tulip
  7. Use the stem and leaf templates to cut the shapes from green paper. Cutting the green stem and leaves
  8. Curl the tips of the leaves for a realistic look by rolling each tip around your finger or a pencil. Curling the paper leaf tips
  9. Fold the light blue card in half. Write a Mother’s Day message inside, lightly in pencil first and then in pen. Folding the card and adding a Mother's Day greeting
  10. Glue the stem to the lower part of the card front. Glue the leaves on either side, taking care to leave their curled tips unstuck. Gluing the stem and leaves to the card
  11. Finish by gluing the flower above the stem. Open its folds enough to apply glue easily and make sure the upper part is firmly attached. Attaching the finished tulip to the card
An alternative orange tulip card
An alternative orange tulip card

Choose another card