Super Easy Tissue Paper Decorations

Remember the big floral letter that I referenced in an earlier post?  I spotted it here while hunting for image ideas in the pink, green, yellow, and orange color scheme. Well I figured out a way to make something so similar, so cheap, and so easy to customize to any color, shape or size, using tissue paper!

This project starts out with one of my favorite simple crafts, tissue paper pom pom flowers.  I remember being a really little kid and making these out of Kleenex tissues.  This is a craft that is always in my back pocket if art students finish something early.  You can make them in any size and in any combination.  here are the basics.

First, you need several rectangles of tissue paper.  The more layers you have the fuller your pom pom will be.  I used 2-3 layers on the flowers in the "E" pictured above.  You need your rectangle to be twice as long as it is wide.  However wide it is, that will be how big in diameter your pom pom will be.  Lay the rectangle as shown in the picture above and begin accordion or fan folding, basically fold up and then fold down.  The tissue paper should look like a long staircase when you have finished.

Tie your tissue paper in the center.  It does not matter what you use to tie it, just make a tight knot.

 I chose to cut my ends to make them look more like a flower.  I was in a rush so I didn't bother with a neat fan fold, I just sort of gathered them.  So my example above looks pretty messy.  If you follow the directions (and don't rush like me) you will have a nice flat long rectangle and you can just snip the two ends, either into a point or a half circle.  I ended up with a lump of tissue and just cut random triangle shapes into it. 

Last, to make the monogram, I simply put a single loop of tape on the back of each and stuck it to the wall.  The pom poms were so light, it didn't take much tape at all and I was able to reposition them as needed.  The "E" required less than 15 pom poms and once they were made, only took a few minutes to assemble.

We had extra pom poms, so we scattered them around with the other decorations.

We still had extra tissue paper so we used it and some curling ribbon to decorate the fruit bowl centerpieces.

A fun summery bright happy party, that left the decorators happy because we didn't have to work too hard.