It's time to start talkin' about flowers!
I have been thinking, sketching, web-surfing for and even *dreaming* flower ideas for weeks now and I'm so thrilled to finally begin sharing them with you!
In honor of Cinco De Mayo today's flower is the beautiful tissue paper flower, a traditional Mexican art form.
I have always loved these flowers and growing up in Texas most of my life I have seen so many gorgeous variations of them.
My favorites have always been the giant ones made from 6 to 10 sheets of tissue paper so those are the ones we're creating today.
Once you get the hang of making these though, there are so many ways you can change them up and decorate them!
Mexican Tissue Paper Flowers
What you'll need to get started:
8-10 sheets of brightly colored tissue paper per flower
Scissors
twist ties, pipe cleaners, ribbon and/or wire
Step One:
Decide the colors and pattern for your flower and how many sheets you want to use. The more sheets you use the thicker and fluffier your flower will be. I chose seven sheets of red, orange and pink.
Step Two:
Layer your paper neatly and begin to fold it accordion style from the short end.
Your folds should be about 1/2 inch to an inch wide, but honestly this is a very forgiving craft so don't stress if it's not perfect.
When you've finished folding you should have a long strip of tissue paper that looks like this:
Step Three:
Next you're going to trim the ends. This will determine how the "petals" of your flower look.
You can just trim the corners off to make rounded petals or you can try pinking shears or scalloped scissors for a more ruffle-y effect.
I did a little scallop cut on mine:
Be sure and save all your trimmed scraps for some fun collages later!
Step Four:
Now you want to fold your long strip of tissue paper in half to find the middle.
Then unfold and snip a little notch in each side right at the fold.
Be careful not to cut all the way through your paper strip or you'll be making two small flowers instead of one big one!.
Step Five:
Use a twist tie, ribbon, a pipe cleaner, or a piece of wire to wrap around the center of your tissue paper at the notches.
I chose to use ribbon because I wanted to hang my flower from the spring banner in my kitchen.
Bunch it together and twist tightly. This will be the stem of your flower or what you will use to attach your flower to something else (i.e. a dalrod for large flowers or pencil for small flowers).
Step Six:
Now carefully unfold the tissue paper one layer at a time separating and shaping as you go to create petals.
Be careful that you don't get in a hurry to see your pretty flower or you may tear the delicate tissue paper like so:
(I...uh...did that just to um...show you *cough* what would happen...really.)
You can scrunch & fluff as you go to get the look you want.
When you are finished the bottom should look something like this:
To give your flower a little more rounded shape on top you can squeeze the bottom together a little bit like this:
And finally your finished flower!
Variations:
These flowers are so versatile and can be made in tiny sizes (think pencil toppers and temporary barrettes and brooches) or medium sizes for pretty bouquets and hanging decorations.
You can dip the edges in glue and then glitter for sparkly flowers or even attach little paper bees or butterflies.
I think they would be beautiful attached to twine in rows for a colorful summer kitchen garland or on the patio for a fiesta!
I hope you have fun making these! I can't wait to see your versions so be sure and email me with a link to your creations so I can link you here!
See you tomorrow with more flower ideas!
His Grace and Peace,
♥ Melissa~
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"The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever.”
-Isaiah FORTY verse EIGHT
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