Cut 21 strips of paper the width of a sheet of copier paper, each 5/8 inch wide (1cm).
Glue the ends of 6 strips to form large rings. Cut the rest of the strips in half.
Glue all of these short strips into rings. Keep 6 as small rings. Press all the rest flat to form 24 leaf shapes.
To make each wheel, gather one large ring, one small ring, and 4 leaf shapes.
Put glue on one side of a leaf.
Glue it to the inside of the large ring.
Press the shape the whole length of the leaf to make sure it is securely glued to the large ring.
Glue the second leaf shape next to the first one inside the large ring.
Continue gluing the third and fourth leaf shapes inside the large ring.
Glue the outside of the small ring all the way around it once. Then rub glue on a second time. This will make sure there is enough glue to hold it in place, and that it will not dry out before the ring is in place.
Fit the small ring into the middle of the 4 leaf shapes. Press the ring and each leaf it is touching to make sure there is a securely glued. Don’t worry about the glue that is not touching anything--it will dry as is.
You will need 6 of these wheels to fill a cross.
Put glue on the outside of the large ring in the 4 places where the leaves intersect. Put glue on all 4 of these places a second time.
Put a ring in the top of the cross. Work quickly so the glue does not dry before all the circles are in place.
Be sure to squeeze each end of each leaf against the side of the cross--between thumb and first finger-- to make sure that each wheel is securely glued to the sides of the cross.
Because the middle circle does not have the sides of the cross to be secured to, glue it to the back of the cross. To do this, put small beads of white glue to the back edges of the middle circle. Wipe off any excess glue with a swab. Another way to glue the middle circle more securely is to scrape off small globs of glue from the glue stick, and put it on the back edges of the middle circle. Once the final middle wheel is in place, also glue the sides to the other circles that it connects with--top, bottom, and sides., just as the other circles were glued to the sides of the cross.
glue
This cross looks more complicated than it is. Once you know how to make one wheel, it is just a matter of making the same thing over again, so it gets pretty easy. If you make several crosses, they look pretty hanging together.
Wheel version
Curly version
Leaf version