TISSUE FLOWER GARLAND

Recently I made a tissue flower garland to use as a backdrop for our "tea party" in the flower girl photo shoot that my daughter and I collaborated on this past month.   I was pleased with the way it turned out and thought I'd share in case you may want to create your own.  I can see it being used as decoration for a bridal or baby shower or even a little girl's birthday party.

It wasn't difficult at all and it only takes a few supplies:

• tissue paper (dollar store)
• one spool of wired ribbon (fabric store)
• one spool of miniature pearls (fabric store)
• floral wire or floral wire stems 

The first thing to do is make the tissue paper flowers.  I bought my tissue paper at the Dollar Store, you can get packages about double in size for less than what you get elsewhere.  Begin by counting out 8 sheets (the number of sheets you use will determine the diameter of the finished flower) and cut them in half horizontally;  now stack them on top of one another so you have 16 layers of tissue.  Accordion fold the tissue in approximately 1 1/2" folds.    For those of you who are near my age, I used to make these when I was a kid with kleenex and pipe cleaners; back then you could find kleenex in colors--in fact, I remember when I had my first place (circa 1980's) I had blue kleenex in one bathroom and pink kleenex in another.  Hey, the mauve and blue color scheme was popular back then.

I cut my floral stems in thirds and used one piece to twist around the center of the fan to secure.  In this picture I only used two layers of tissue so you could see how to secure the wire.  

First fan out the accordion horizontally, then separate the layers by pulling the sheets apart one-by-one vertically.  As you get approximately 3/4 of the layers pulled you'll find you can pull toward the other side naturally forming the ball from front to back.  The tissue can tear pretty easily, so be delicate.  Then fluff all the way around to make it more symmetrical.

Also, before you get to pulling the layers apart, you could cut the edges into points or a semi circle so that you get a different look to your flower when you pull the layers apart; I've done the semi-circle.  I haven't done the points yet.  There are many great tissue flower tutorials out there, so if my instructions aren't doing the trick for you....please look at others---you won't hurt my feelings. 

To make the garland, I purchased a roll of strung pearls at the fabric store.  I opened the flowers to find the center (where the wire stem is)  and tied the strand around the center and re-fluffed the flowers so that you can't see the loop;continue from flower to flower.  You don't even need to knot the strand since the pearls catch on one another and keep the strand tight around the middle.

Finally, in between the flowers tie large bows around the pearl strand....and voilà, you have a tissue paper garland.   I attached them to the bushes with clothespins that I "blinged" for my daughter's wedding.....oh hey....maybe, that's something else I should share!  :)