Tissue Paper Flowers
What you will need:
- Tissue Paper
- Scissors
- Pipe cleaner, twist ties or floral wire
- Dowel or stick (optional)
Steps
1. Cut 6 to 8 sheets of tissue paper to approximately 7 x11 inches. You can use a single color or different colors of tissue paper. You might want to use different colored tissue paper, one color for the center, another for the petals and green-ish for the outside edge which you can fluff toward the stem as leaves. The more sheets you use, the fluffier your flower will be. Larger sheets of tissue paper will result in bigger, more showy flowers.
2. Pile the sheets together. Make a ¾ inch fold on one short side of the rectangle. This will define the width of the folds in the succeeding steps.
3. Fold the paper accordion-style (back-and-forth folding).
4. Trim off any excess paper after the last fold.
5. Round out both ends of the folded paper. You can also rip just a little bit off the ends to give the petal edges more of a textured edge. Or use pinking shears. This helps too if you want to even out the sides to your liking.
6. Tie a pipe cleaner around the center of the folded paper.
7. Spread open one side of the folded paper so that it opens up like a fan.
8. To create the flower petals, slowly separate each layer of tissue toward the top center of the flower.
9. Work your way one layer at a time until you've separated all the layers on one side of the pipe cleaner.
10. Next, open up the opposite side like a fan.
11. Separate the tissue and bring it towards the center one layer at a time, just as you did in Step 9.
12. Once all the layers of tissue have been separated, you'll see how pretty and fluffy your paper bloom is.
13. If you wish to add a stem, coil the ends of the pipe cleaner around a dowel or chopstick. Further wrap a tape around the pipe cleaner to hold it in place. Pipe cleaners are good but you can use twist ties, rubber bands, and other types of materials for the stems (I've used wire-hangers cut-down for big flowers and wrapped them with ribbon). Just make sure the middle is good and tight to spread the petals with.
14. If you wish to make a scented flower spray the tissue paper flower with perfume or put a small drop of scented oil in the middle. You could also finish them off with spray adhesive and glitter.
- Put several of these stemmed flowers in a vase or basket for a lovely flower arrangement.
- Wear the flower as a gorgeous hair accent by twisting the pipe cleaner ends around a hair clip, headband or hair elastic. It's perfect for a Spanish-inspired attire or a springtime look!
- You can also make it into a flower napkin ring by twisting the pipe cleaner around a rolled napkin.
