The latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings has a feature on making tissue/crepe paper flowers. One of the things they show is how to make giant pom-poms with the paper (they also showed them, but didn’t mention them, this week on the daytime Martha show when they did a segment about making paper bouquets and favors).
All that’s needed to do this project is craft/tissue/crepe paper (the magazine said to use 20″x30″ paper, but mine was 20″x20″ and it worked perfectly), some white cloth-covered floral wire (magazine said to use 24 ga, mine was 32 ga, either or in between is fine), some clear string to hang the pom-poms with, and good sharp paper scissors.
First, I stacked eight sheets of paper. Try to get the paper even on all sides.
Next, make accordian pleats. You don’t have to measure, just make a pleat every one or two inches.
Cut an 18″ or so length of floral wire and fold it in half. Put the wire in the center of the pleated paper, and twist the ends of the wire to make it nice and tight:
Now cut each of the ends of the paper. You can make them pointy or rounded, or whatever you like:
Now, begin ‘unfolding’ each layer of the paper. Pick up the first sheet (be careful, because it can tear if you pull too hard), separating along all the pleats, and pull it more or less straight up:
Do the other side the same way. Then keep unfolding. Remember that you want this to make a circle, so if you used eight sheets, around the fourth sheet remember that you will want it just a little above the equator of the circle and the fifth sheet will be a little bit below, and so on:
It’s easy just to turn the whole thing over very gently to do the other half of the sheets:
Here it is, all done! Something I didn’t expect was that I thought the floral wire looked a little like a flower’s stamen – so I didn’t cut them down too much.
Just take some clear string and wrap around the floral wire at the top of the pom-pom. I twisted the floral wire around the clear string just to make sure it had a good strong hold.
I hung this one on my front porch – see how pretty?
I made a three more of these pom-poms – another the same size, and two more that were smaller – just cut the paper that you start with into a smaller-size square. I also used more than eight sheets of paper on the smaller ones so they are super-full and pretty. These will be great for our next get-together. I’ll just say, “look for the pom-poms!”
Do you see the gourd birdhouse next to the pom-pom above? A mommy birdie is making a nest inside it right now. Every year, we are lucky enough to get birds to make their homes on our porch and in our crepe myrtle. I *love* seeing them bring things to make their nest with, and then later to see them feeding their babies. Sooooo sweet.