How to Make Easy Tissue Paper Flowers

My friend and I recently threw a ladybug-themed baby shower, and we decided to go with handmade black, red, and white decorations. Instead of buying real flowers, we put together some tissue paper flowers for the table centerpieces. Once we figured out what we wanted to do, they were so simple! Here’s how to make them:

Step 1: Cut circles

First, cut whatever colors of tissue paper you like into small, medium, and large circles.  You can do more than 3 layers if you like. (Ignore the crumpliness and holes in the tissue…I forgot to take pictures the first time I made them, so I took one apart for these instructions!)

Step 2: Layer the Circles

Layer your circles by size, with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on the top. (Feel free to ignore my distracting fingernail polish in these pictures, too.)

Step 3: Prepare Stem

Take one end of a pipe cleaner and curl it up into a small, tight swirl. This will be the center of your flower.

Step 4: Add Stem

Insert the non-curled end of the pipe cleaner through the top of the circles’ centers. The wire should be sharp enough to punch through all of them. Don’t worry if the tissue gets a little scrunched in the process.

Pull it through until the tight swirl you made is nice and snug against the top layer of tissue paper.

Once through, you want to make sure the circles don’t slip down the pipe cleaner. To do this, just tie a knot in the end of the pipe cleaner, and tighten it up against the bottom of the tissue paper.

Step 5: Scrunch the tissue paper

Layer by layer, bring the tissue paper up toward the center to scrunch it into the shape of a flower.

Step 6: Arrange and Display Flowers

We used scrapbook paper and ribbon to decorate glass jars that were saved from my kitchen. They provided the perfect vases for these flowers.

For the baby shower, we filled some jars with flowers, some jars with mints, and some jars with black and red licorice. Here are a few of the baby shower details:

Enjoy!