Tuesday, July 30, 2013

How-Tuesday: How to Make Tissue Paper Pom Poms


I know these cute tissue paper pom poms (or flowers, whatever you want to call them) have been around for a long time, but it never fails that when I use them to decorate for a party, someone asks me how to make them. So I figure there are at least a few people out there who could use a tutorial!

First, start with a stack of 6-8 sheets of tissue paper. You can do all the same color, or alternate colors.
 Then, fold it accordion-style (about an inch for each fold)...
 Then, trim the ends, either to a rounded shape, or a pointy tip.
 Take some wire and wrap it around the middle to secure it, and then slip a ribbon through. Trust me, it's MUCH easier to attach the ribbon before you fluff it all up! (Not that I would ever have made that mistake or anything...) You can also use fishing line, but I like the ribbon for that extra pop of color.
Once you've got it secured, fan the edges apart and start pulling up the tissue paper, starting from the top. Alternate first one side, then the other, moving down through half the sheets. So, if you layered 6 sheets of tissue paper, pull 3 of them up. Pull VERY carefully, as these can rip, and pull them all the way up to the middle.

 Then, do the same thing on the other side, so they're pulled apart from each other.

Then, fluff the layers gently back toward each other, and arrange them until you have the look you want.
 The one on the left had the pointy tips, and the one on the right the rounded ones.
 You can hang these, as seen here...
 ...or just leave them as a table decoration.
These are pretty flexible, so experiment a little! You can cut the tissue paper in half to make smaller ones, buy larger tissue paper, layer 12 sheets instead of 6, make multi-color ones, or wherever your creativity takes you! But whatever you do, don't buy the overpriced Martha Stewart kits for these. They are super simple and fun to make!

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