Elegant Tissue Paper Flowers

Fancy Paper Flowers

"Elegant tissue paper flowers" may sound like an oxymoron, but the friend who taught me how to make these beauties, made dozens of them to decorate her Christmas tree last year. It was perhaps the most gorgeous Yule tree I had ever seen.

Her flowers didn't have stems. They were simply huge blooms in brilliant hues.

You have a lot of options with these flowers. Make them small to decorate a gift. Make a bouquet for a side table or a low arrangement for a centerpiece. Or, do as my friend did and think big!

My pink rose is 5 inches across with an 11-inch stem.

Paper Flower Materials

• Eight 3-inch squares of flower-color tissue paper. Notice that they are not perfect squares; no two real petals are exactly the same.
• Four 3-inch long rectangles of green tissue paper
• 33 inches of fairly heavy wire for the stem. Don't ask me the gauge; I "borrowed" mine from my DH's workbench.
• About 4 inches of thinner gauge wire to wind the petals together.
• Green florist's tape for wrapping the stem

Tools

• Scissors
• Wire cutters
• Pen or pencil for curling the leaves

How to Make the Paper Flower

For the petals, use the scissors to round three of the four corners. You can cut a stack of about four at a time.

Holding the pointed end of a stack of petals in one hand, roll one of the curved edges around the pen.

[ Here's the secret to the look of elegance.] While keeping the edge rolled around the pen, use both hands to scrunch the edges together toward the middle. Remove the pen. Notice that the petals hold the rolled and scrunched shape.

Repeat with the opposite petal edge.

Separate the petals.

Assemble the rose. Notice that the center petals are bunched quite tightly and then the whorls begin to flatten out to a rose in full bloom. Keep all the bottom petal points at the same level. There is a tendency to want to put them lower and lower.

Wrap the thin wire around the base of the rose to hold the bloom together.

Fold the long wire in thirds. This will make it thick enough to resemble a real stem.

Cut the four green rectangles into leaf shapes.

Roll and scrunch the leaves just as you did the petals.

Begin wrapping the stem with florist's tape from the top down and on an angle. Stretch the tape as you go; this is what makes it stick. Incorporate the leaves one by one as you wind the tape.