Tissue Paper Flowers- Think Spring!

It's time to think spring! With temps climbing up around 40 degrees (yes, that's warm up here), and more minutes of sunlight every day, it's finally time to take down the snowflakes, the snowmen, the scenes of winter wonderland, and even the tiny sweaters that speak the language of ice and snow. It's time to bask in the sunshine and enjoy thoughts of blooms!

At Macy's Flower Show last spring, there were kids' activities set up in the isles of FAO Schwarz (very strategic, don't you think?) and one of the things that we liked the best were the tissue paper flowers. They had little kits made up, with pre-cut tissue papers and a pipe cleaner (chenille stem, whatever you want to call them...) all ready to go.

We brought home a couple extra sets and they have become the template & inspiration for our first spring crafts this year.

These flowers are so fun and easy to make! You can make them with bright and wild colors or soft and sweet- whatever suits for fancy or whatever you find to work with.

Our original flowers were made with tissue paper rectangles measuring approximately 9" x 11", but 8x10, 7x9, 6x8, or even 5x7 will work... I didn't even measure our latest ones. I simply folded the stack of tissue papers (I used 5 sheets, you can use more or less to get different fullness in your flowers) in half and cut along the fold. Then I cut each half in half again, and then again. This makes 8 flowers of equal size.

Once you have your rectangles, you fold them accordion style, like the paper fans we all learned to make as a child. You can leave the ends alone, or you can round them off like I did on our light flowers, or you can cut points like the bright one on a previous post.

Next, take a pipe cleaner and wrap around your folded tissue paper, in the center, and twist the end around itself to secure.

Then comes the hard part- except that it's not really hard, you just have to be careful not to rip the tissue paper, which you will do if you pull to fast and hard. Carefully start separating the layers of tissue paper to create the fullness of the flower.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat. (Except don't really lather or rinse- just repeat. Wet tissue paper is a disaster of monumental proportions. It isn't pretty. It's not the look we're going for.) Make one, make a few, or make an entire big bouquet...

Enjoy!