How To Make Tissue Paper Flowers

Now that that summer is well and truly behind us, the kids
and I no longer go to parks in the mornings. Nor do we run
errands, actually, but that's more out of pure inertia than
the weather. Anyway, this means we have more time in the
mornings for crafts, something sorely neglected
in the warmer, outdoorsy months.

Emily has been poring over the pages of her princess
craft book which I mentioned earlier here and asking to
do some of the crafts therein. Last night I got out my
stash of re-usable gift tissue paper and cut out
some circles to make paper flowers.


In addition to finding new uses for old tissue paper, it was
also an excuse to use my fancy-edge craft scissor collection

and to put some color into our rather snowy
and bland autumn (so far).

Then I set aside the circles for the morning.


If you have an abundance of tissue paper, this might be
fun to do with your kids. Here's what you need:

• Straws
• Chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
• Tissue paper, cut into circles of roughly 6" - different sizes make for prettier flowers. Also cut little 1/2" circles out of the middles
• Scissors
• Tape (we used regular scotch/sticky tape)
  

Step 1
Slit the top of the straw about 1" down, into 6 sections.
Open them out as shown.



Step 2
Stack 4-5 circles of tissue paper and poke the bottom of the straw through all the holes.
Just to see if I could squeeze an educational thing out of this, I had Emily stack the circles in order of size but really, that is completely optional.



Step 3
Scrunch up the middle of the circles around the straw and tape tightly around the point.
Carefully spread out the circles again to form the flower petals.


Step 4
Cut about 2" of pipe cleaner and fold in half.



Step 5
Squeeze the two ends of the pipecleaner together and insert into the cut (top) end of the straw to form the flower center.

Make more flowers!

If you like, you can cut radial slits in the circles to make frilly petals.

Stick them in a glass jar or (like we did) give them
away to teachers and classmates.


Emily voted this a "fun craft because it was so quick to do."

Here's an action shot of Jenna not doing this
craft according to the guidelines:

She was just happy to cut the tissue paper circles into
pieces and scatter them all over the floor, like rose petals
at a wedding. She was happy, so we let her
craft the way she felt led to.