Tissue Paper Pom-Poms

I should start by saying that I had no idea how simple it is to make tissue paper pom-poms/flowers/balls. (Nor did I know what to call them.) I’ve seen the festive tissue paper spheres floating over tables in magazines and blog posts (and Martha Stewart sells a kit, of course), and I’ve always assumed they were pretty easy. Just glue a bunch of pieces of tissue paper to a foam ball, right? Ha. I had no idea that it got even easier — just secure a bunch of tissue paper at the center and fluff it out!

Rather excitedly, I tried to make my first one… and failed miserably. It turns out, contrary to a lot of the directions floating around the web, eight sheets of paper is just not enough to make a full-sheet-sized pom-pom. It ends up misshapen and full of gaps. Luckily, I tried cutting the paper down a bit to make smaller poms, and all the rest came out just fine. The bigger the pom-pom, the more paper you need!

Supplies:
6-10 sheets of 20″ tissue paper (6 sheets is enough for small pom-poms, but it takes at least 10 sheets to make full sheet poms.)
Thin wire
Scissors

1. Fold 1″ pleats into stack of tissue paper, accordion style.

2. To make two smaller pom-poms, cut the stack in half at this point. To make one large one, skip to step 3!

3. Wrap a piece of wire (approximately the length of your tissue paper) around the center of the stack, twisting to secure. Don’t trim the wire ends down — you’ll need to find them when the ball is fluffed out.

4. Trim the ends of the paper. For a dahlia look, bring the edges to points. For a softer look, round the edges.

5. Fan the paper out from the center.

6. One sheet at a time, carefully pull pieces of tissue paper up and away from the stack. After pulling half of the sheets up, turn the ball over and pull half in the opposite direction.

7. Once all the sheets have been separated, it should basically resemble a sphere. Adjust and fluff pieces to fill in any gaps and make the pom-pom look even.

8. Twist the wire ends together to make a loop and attach it to a piece of thread. We stuck ours to the ceiling with a few pieces of tape, but you might want a little hook for something permanent!