How to make festive flowers with tissue paper

While Christmas decorations are fairly easy to find these days, there is something undeniably satisfying about making your own decorations to add to the mix. You can make some fabulous festive flowers and add them to your tree or even use them to decorate various parts of your home over the holidays. They don’t require much time, effort or expensive materials. Plus, you can even get your kids involved!

What you need to make festive flowers:

• A selection of red, white and green tissue or crepe paper
• A pair of scissors
• A ruler
• Floral wire or another similar thin wire

Directions for making festive flowers:

• Start by stacking 8 sheets of tissue paper on top of one another. Remember, you can use a single colour or you can mix it up. It really is up to you.
• Now trim the stack of 8 sheets to the size you need. The size of the paper will determine the size of your festive flowers. You can make some larger than others if you like. If you are not sure, you can make one and then adjust the size of the next flower if you would like it bigger or smaller.
• Now fold the sheets up together in an accordion style.
• Once you are done, press the folds flat and fold gently in half to create a midpoint.
• Tie the wire around the midpoint to secure the paper in place. Twist the two ends of the wire together but leave them long enough so that you can secure your festive flowers to the tree, wreath or wherever else you are using them.
• Now it’s time to trim the ends of the folded paper. To create a bloom that has a rose or peony shape, you need to cut the ends so that they are rounded. If you prefer the look of a poinsettia, you can cut the ends to form a point. Remember, you don’t have to make all of your flowers the same. You can make some pointy and others round.
• Gently fan out the paper on either side of the floral wire and separate them slowly. You can pull on the petals but do so with care. Also, if you do manage to break a petal, you can always fix it by trimming it. Your flower will have plenty of petals so it’s not something that will completely ruin the look.
• Scrunch and fluff the petals to give your flowers a full and abundant appearance.
• Secure your festive flowers to the tree or wherever you would like to add some colour this holiday season.

There you have it! Easy festive flowers that you can make with just a handful of basic supplies. These flowers can be stored in your box of Christmas decorations and they can be used every year. They will eventually need to be discarded and replaced but they should hold their shape and colour for several years if they are stored in a cool, dry and dark place.