26 July 2012 - Tissue Flowers

Today's Activity:  Tissue Flowers  

To do this craft, you will need the following items:  2 sheets tissue paper, the kind you use to wrap a present (colored would be good), pipe cleaners and scissors.  We will use the tissue for other crafts in the future, so don't use up all of your supplies today!

Lay out your two sheets flat so they are perfectly stacked.  Fold them in half and cut the side so you now have 4 sheets.  Then fold the 4 sheets over and cut the folded side.  Now you have 8 sheets.

Working the shorter end, make a fold about 1 inch wide.  Turn the stack over, then fold that flap over again.  Turn the stack over and fold again.  Keep going until the whole stack is folded.  At this point, you could use it as a fan!  But we are going to keep going.  Make sure your folds look like mine; if you ended up with something like a tube, it is not right.

Using your scissors, round off the ends.  Fold the fan in half, make a crease, and open it back up.  Then cut a little "V" on each edge of the crease (see picture).  By the way, you don't really have to do any of the cuts; it will work out even if you don't.

Place a pipe cleaner under the middle of the tissue with about 2 inches sticking out on one side, and the rest on the other.  Fold the short end of the pipe cleaner over the top of the tissue and twist it closed.

Hold the tissue by the pipe cleaner.  Spread out the tissue so it forms a semicircle on each side of the pipe cleaner (it will be like a bumpy plate).  You don't have to keep it open, but you need to kind of stretch each side so they are not so tightly closed.  Gently pull up one layer of the tissue from one side of the pipe cleaner.  Carefully pull it upright.  Then do the same for the top layer on the other side.  Now you will do the next layers on both sides, and keep going  until the whole flower is puffed.  You can twist the pipe cleaner stem onto a pencil or dowel to make it stand up better.  You can put one flower into a vase, or make a whole bunch.

This is with one piece of tissue on one side of the flower puffed up.

Now I did the first layer of tissue on both sides.

All done!

Variations:  You can use fewer layers to make a smaller flower.  Also, you can use more colors, or fewer colors.  After cutting the layers, you can rearrange the order of the colors to get a specific look.  Have fun!!

Variation:  To make a tissue ball (that you could use as a Christmas ornament), follow all the steps above until you get to the pipe cleaner.  Use a string instead of the pipe cleaner to hold it together.  Gently pull up one layer from the top and puff it up.  Do the other side too.  Then go to the bottom of the tissue and puff the bottom layer down.  Keep alternating top and bottom sheets and you will end up wth a ball (make sure you have at least 8 layers to make the ball, 12 layers would be better).

Email me a picture of your flower(s) and I will post them here!  mindiphipps@gmail.com