Month: December 2013

If you want a casual, low-maintenance option to decorate your Christmas tree with, try creating these super-fun, super-festive tissue paper flowers. They look just like real flowers, and their decorating potential isn’t limited to Christmas trees: Use them to dress up wreaths, garland, gift boxes, baskets, curtain rods, flower pots, and more. Plus, you can enjoy making this easy Christmas craft with your kids — no cleanup required.

Materials needed for tissue paper flower ornaments

• Red, green, and white tissue paper (about 6-8 sheets of tissue paper per flower)
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Floral wire

How to make tissue paper flower ornaments

1. Neatly stack six to eight sheets of tissue paper, one on top of the other. Pile them in any color pattern you wish: You can use one color or alternate colors for each layer. Use your imagination to make each flower unique, like the ones shown above.

2. Trim the stack according to the size you want your flower to be. You can trim it down to a 10 by 10 square or 7 by 12 rectangle. The smaller you cut the pile, the smaller your flower will be.

3. Fold the tissue paper accordion style into 1-inch-wide folds.

4. Lay the tissue paper accordion flat on a table. Fold a 10-inch piece of floral wire in half and wrap it around the center of the accordion. Twist the floral wire right below the accordion to prevent the tissue paper from unfolding. There will be a few extra inches of floral wire sticking out; you’ll use this to attach your flower to your tree.

5. Trim the two ends of the accordion to create either round or pointed edges. Round edges will give you a flower that looks like a rose or peony; pointed edges will create poinsettia-like petals. The image above shows what each type of petal looks like on a finished flower. (The red and white flowers have rounded petals; the green flower pointed petals.)

6. Fan out the accordion on each side of the floral wire.

7. One by one, slowly and very gently start pulling each layer of tissue paper up and toward the center of the accordion, away from the floral wire. Do this on each side of the floral wire.

8. When you’re done, carefully fluff up the petals to fill any empty spaces. Use the wire to attach your gorgeous tissue paper blossom to a branch on your Christmas tree…or to anything else you think could use a festive and flowery touch!

Bonus: When Christmas is over, save your flowers and use them as decorations for your next birthday party, barbecue, baby shower, or bridal shower.