Arts and crafts have been a mainstay of the creative’s life since time immemorial. There is nothing more delightful than getting your fingers on a bunch of random items and putting together something fun and goofy to keep you busy and feeling like a real boss artist. For those of you looking to add more creative fun into your days, or something to delight your children with, learning how to make things out of paper tissue can be a great past time. As simple as they may seem, they can turn out quite lovely and are the perfect accouterment to baby and bridal showers, and even weddings, especially when shaped like flowers. In fact, we would hazard a guess that they may be the cheapest and most fun ways for family and friends to get together and create decorations for any event. For those people on a budget, look no further than the paper tissue flower; it is your best friend. Let’s explore some ways to make them.
Continue to explore:
• What Do You Need?
• How to Make a Tissue Paper Flower
• Get Creative
• The Perfect Budget Gift
What Do You Need?
This is possibly the easiest part of the endeavor, as creating paper tissue flowers requires very little to begin. The first thing to get is, of course, tissue paper. Get a ton of it, as it is very cheap, and the more you have, the more you feel comfortable with making mistakes and getting creative on your own. A good pair of scissors that fit comfortably in your hand and aren’t too large are ideal, as you may be doing quite a bit of cutting and shaping with them. After that, a trusty stapler, so that you can, you know, staple stuff. Once you have your three trusty sidekicks, you are ready and able to continue on your quest to conquer the world of tissue paper floral design. The world trembles at your coming.
How to Make a Tissue Paper Flower
We separated this into two steps to help ease the process along, so follow carefully, and if something doesn’t seem to be working, don’t get frustrated, just try again. Getting this right the very first time you try is rare, as it can be a bit tricky, but once you do it right one time, your brain is going to understand how to do it again, and you’ll be banging out dozens without breaking a sweat.
Step 1: The first place to start is by grabbing two sheets of your tissue paper of choice. Fold both sheets of tissue paper in half, and then repeat the process one more time. Take hold of the corner on the opposite side of the fold, and fold that side to the opposing edge, forming a triangle. Grab your scissor friends, making sure not to confuse your fingers for a piece of tissue, and begin to trim off the excess rectangular area of tissue. After that, open the triangle and form yourself a square. You should notice that some of the edges of the tissue have folds. Grab your scissors again, sliding them gently into the fold and cutting out separate pieces of tissue. You want to get eight different squares of tissue out of this endeavor.
Step 2: Now that you have your eight squares, it is time for step two. Grab a square and fold it up like an accordion. You may get six or seven folds if you’re lucky. Once that is done, staple it smack dab in the center. After that, start trimming the edges to create the flower petals. We go over some different ways to do this later. Gently separate each layer of the tissue flower. Pull it out from the inner part of each layer, not from the exterior, as that significantly increase your chances of tearing your new creation. You may end up tearing quite a few no matter how careful you are, but don’t stress it, perfection is the enemy of the good as they say. Fluff each side to give it a nice poofy look, and there you have it, you’re a paper tissue master.
Get Creative
There are a host of ways to shape your paper tissue flowers to create different looks. Many of them involve gently cutting the ends of your folded-up tissue, adding vertical slices, or making V-shapes and other things. When you do this, and then fluff out your tissue after, it creates different shapes. This is the moment to get a little creative, try adding little snips and designs to your tissue, maybe even draw or paint some other colors and things to really personalize it, and then see what kind of shape you get at the end. One of the fun parts of creating these flowers is exploring how many quirky forms you can make. Challenge yourself, see how much creativity is hiding in that beautiful brain of yours, and you may end up surprised at the cool designs you end up creating.
The Perfect Budget Gift
Tissue paper flowers may be the perfect gift for those of you on a budget. Sitting down to watch some Netflix while working on these little beauties can lead to you having basketfuls to hand out to friends and family members. Nothing beats the look of delight on your spouse’s face if you show up with a bouquet of these, as they can be even more meaningful than a real flower considering the effort it can take to create them. A simple walk over to the convenience store gets you all the supplies you need, and depending on your skill level, a few hours of work may bring a new level of love to your relationships, so don’t wait to get working on them.