artsandcrafts

These enormous flowers are made of tissue paper, and you may remember them from an old school carnival.  Here are instructions for making your own.

First, you’ll need a bunch of tissue paper.  Using one package is usually enough, but you may want to experiment with changing the colors.  You’ll also need a dowel rod and some florist’s wire.

Take the tissue paper out of the package and leave it as one big stack.  If you change out colors, be sure to stack it up again in a similar manner.  Fold it over so that this stack is doubled.  Lightly accordian fold it so that the folds go from the fold in the middle of the paper out to the edge (instead of edge to edge), without really creasing the folds too much.  Then, along the edge (across from the main fold) you may want to use scissors and give it a scalloped cut.  Run wire along the folded edge, and gather it up so that it is compressed into a very small area.  If you did it right, it should sort of resemble a butterfly with accordian folded wings on each side.

Now, wrap the wire around the dowel rod, so that it’s attached firmly.  This will give you something to hang onto for the next step.  Very carefully so you don’t rip the tissue paper, you will pull up on each layer, starting with the middle ones.  Separate them from the other layers of tissue paper, and move them towards the middle.  Do this with each layer of tissue paper.  When you’re finished, crinkle them and move them to achieve a really full flower appearance.

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