Green or Brown pipe cleaners or crafting wire, cut at 6" or left at 8" or 12"
Scissors (crafting zig-zag scissors if available, not essential)
Ruler
Some Patience
EXTRA CREDIT
Dark green crepe paper (for leaves)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Take five sheets of tissue paper and lay them out in a flat stack.
2. Cut the sheets in half long way (If you have crafting scissors, use them for a ragged edge).
3. Cut in half again the same way.
Now you should have four columns of tissue paper roughly 5" wide and 26" long
4. Cut a column of sheets in half (as seen in photo below) and then halve the strips again. Don't worry about precision, a little variation works well with these flowers. Repeat until all of your columns have been cut up.
Now you should have 16 sets of 5" x 6.5" tissue paper, five sheets each.
For larger flowers, you can use 10" x 8" or thereabouts.
5. Now take a stack of five cut sheets and accordion fold them in half inch folds. Then fold in half.
6. Take a pipe cleaner and bend it around the middle of your folded paper, leaving one end (the stem!) longer than the other, and then twist.
7. Pull the pleats apart and cup the edges away from the long part of the pipe cleaner.
8. Carefully pull each piece of tissue paper off of the stack toward the center of the flower. This may take a little practice and getting used to - don't get discouraged, my first one was a mess! Once all of the tissue has been pulled apart, sculpt the flower so its round and full.
Voila!
If you have green crepe paper or green tissue paper, you can cut a piece the size of your stack and put it on the back before you fold. Once you're finished pulling the tissue toward the middle to make the flower petals, you can pull the green away from the white paper and cut in the shape of leaves.
Here is a sample of a larger flower made with the 10" x 8" or so size paper. These may be more satisfying to make (because you'll be finished in half the time and they will look nice and full on party night).
Here are some pictures of early versions of these flowers, and a snap of my "helper." She made four, got bored, and then became my official flower counter when I wanted to know how many I'd made. It helped to have a ball game or movie going while I folded and pleaded with the paper.
Email me if you have any questions or improvements.
Happy folding - it's for a great cause!
Mame
