A Beautiful Birthday Girl—and Making Watercolor Tissue Poms!

It is Fabulously Frugal Friday and boy do I have a simply frugal, and super GORGEOUS tutorial for you that we did this week at the Welcoming House! It was so much of both, in fact, I still want to pinch myself!

My oldest daughter turned 14 this week *sniff sniff* and in honor of her “growing into a young lady” we painted a new bedroom and moved her in.

I have wanted to make these beautiful tissue paper poms for a very long time, but to be honest, she has been rather *ahem* destructive in her time here on earth! But now that she is a young lady, and deserving of a grown up room, I was thrilled to see these become one of the beautiful things that she chose. Grouped in her room, they not only make an impact of feminine style, but are absolutely gorgeous in catching light.

We painted her room a beautiful clear yellow, and she chose marigolds as her accent color (mainly because I was not going for black anything in a yellow room, LOL!).

Then we hung these beautiful poms from her ceiling to catch the light and draw attention to the beautiful high ceilings in her room. 🙂

These really are SO gorgeous, and SO simple, that I really believe anyone can make them for anything from a baby shower, to a birthday, to a a decoration that will be loved and appreciated by a sweet teenager who is very “crafty”.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, because I cant think of an easier craft to do (or cheaper!).

Blessings to you and yours,

~Heather

Step one: buy lots and lots of cheap tissue paper at the dollar store. AS in LOTS. (we spent $4 for our loads of tissue paper and $1 on curling ribbon)

Step two: separate out ten pieces of tissue paper, line them up in OCD fashion (which really takes the longest out of this whole process, admit it), and smooth out all the wrinkles. DO this on a very flat surface.

Step three: Beginning with the short side of the rectangle of tissue paper, start an accordion fold every inch, until the entire rectangle of combined pieces is folded like a giant…well….accordion.

Step four: Take the ribbon, and tie the tissue paper tightly in the middle, double knots so there is no slipping. Then wrap it around again and tie it tightly again. Simply because you have extra ribbon and are a perfectionist who does NOT like loose ends.

Step five: Smooth the accordion folds back together, and taking a pair of sharp strong scissors, trim the ends how you want. We were going for a flower look, so we cut a deep petal shape. However, you can cut an inverted V, a point, really whatever you want. Repeat on both sides, making the length of each half as even as possible.

Step six: Holding the shaped end tightly together, paint thoroughly with watercolors, going slowly and allowing the paint to soak in before you put too much on in haste. Paint your color down the sides as well, so that it frames the petals  of the folds. Don’t do too much, or it could cause the tissue to tear when you separate the layers. Also, remember the color will dry lighter than what you painted. Repeat on the other side.

Step Seven: slightly spread fan out and set aside for a few minutes for it to slightly dry. Too dry and the folds will be hard to separate. Too wet and it will tear. So now is a time to avoid needing a potty break, running to the wood stove, refilling your coffee cup, or chasing a toddler madly down the street because they learned how to escape.

Step Eight: Fluff. Slowly spread the folds on one side, and begin to pull layers apart.

Fluff, and fluff, and crunch and fluff.

Repeat after me.

Step Nine: Once you have one full pom done, you will see that it is only half of a sphere. Make another one following the same directions and layers as the first one. Tie a long string of curling ribbon around the middle of one side. Then get out your trusty glue gun that you have a love-hate relationship with and hot glue those babies together. Then fluff, fluff, and crunch, and fluff all over again.

Guess what? That’s it. Big ones.

Small Ones.

Gorgeous ones and collections of ones.

We finished hanging a couple in her room and they were absolutely perfectly beautiful.

Simple, easy, GORGEOUS.

I know you can do it! Try! 🙂

Here is the link I followed to give me an idea how to get started! 🙂