by Linda Alter

Created on: September 28, 2008   Last Updated: September 22, 2011

MAKING TISSUE PAPER FLOWERS

In my college years, I worked in the early childcare center, and this craft project was one of the preschoolers favorites! I always loved the craft projects, the children also loved them! I know several different ways to make these! You can make them out of any Kleenex type of tissues, tissue paper (the kind you wrap presents in!) There is no sticky glue or residue to worry about, and it's a clean craft! That is the beauty of this craft!

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED:

You will need some long green pipe cleaners, and tissue paper of whatever color you wish to make your flowers out of. I will be using yellow tissue paper as an example. You will want square tissue, so make sure to cut it exactly square, not rectangular. The more pieces you have, the bigger the flower will be, and the bigger the square is, the bigger the flower will be. I try to make mine about 5 x 5 inches, but you can make them any size you wish. You may want to use a variety of colors for your flowers, and alternate the colors.

HOW TO MAKE THEM:

Now, you will want to place all the tissue in a pile, one on top of the other, alternating the colors in a pattern. Now, start at the top, and accordion fold the tissue, then fold them in half, lengthwise in the middle, holding onto the center and wrapping the pipe cleaner around the middle to hold the tissue together so it doesn't come apart. Now you can start to gently pull each individual piece of tissue up and shape the flower as you so desire. Be sure to cover the stem, so that it isn't showing! You now have your flower! It is so simple, isn't it?

OTHER IDEAS:

If you are making flowers for a wedding, as a variation of this activity for children, you can spraypaint metallic silver spraypaint on them and use ribbon instead of pipe cleaners, so as to anchor them to the cars. Of course, use white tissue paper! They look spectacular!

You can also use the tissue flowers to make corsages! They make great Mother's Day gifts from children! You will want to play around with the size to get it right before you let the children make them, then be sure not to let the children have pins (of course!) Let the parents supply the corsage pins or bag them up yourself and not allow the children to play with the pins! If you desire, you can add some baby's breath to the corsages, to make them look more realistic. This will have to be glued in, of course!

FINALLY:

No matter which type of flowers you choose to make, they are fun to make, and beautiful to display! You can display them in a vase, by adding a long stem (a pipe cleaner), anchor them to a car, use them to decorate a hall, or for a centerpiece. However you decide to use them, they make unique decorations!

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