Tissue Paper Pom Poms

My best friend and I are party planner extraordinaires.  We always get excited when it comes time to throw a bridal or baby shower, a birthday, or a holiday party.  Paying extra close attention to the little details is our specialty.  She has all the ideas, and I am the one that executes them....we just make an awesome team. 

We threw a bridal shower for her sister, and while the table looked picture perfect, we were still missing something.... thats when the paper pom pom came into play.  With just some tissue paper and some patience, we re-created these awesome paper forms that made the event that much more special. 

......aaaaaand here's how i did it!

Whatcha gon' need? 

� Package of Tissue Paper.  You will need roughly 20 sheets (I love the look of varying colors and even cool printed tissue paper will do.  I made one with a hounds tooth print and it looked awesome... but for the sake of this i'ble, we are gonna stick with classic white)

�Thin wire... I used wire i got from the floral section of my craft store

�String for you to hang the sucker

�Pliers

�Scissors

�A friend  (making stuff is always better with a friend)

This step may be easy to skim over, but from experience, I have found that its one of the most important ones.  When you open up the package of tissue, make sure you straighten and align them up as nice as possible.  Having them even and lined up will make cleaner folds that you will encounter in the following steps. 

Take about an inch or an inch and half of paper from the bottom and fold it back over the rest of the paper.  Make sure the fold crease is nice and clean, and that you put lots of pressure to ensure that all 20 layers of tissue have a clean crease.

Then flip the stack over, and fold over again.  You want to have an accordion style fold.

Fold all the way til the end of the paper.  You may have some leftover.... if so, just trim the excess off.

Go back and repress all the folds to make sure all the folds are nicely creased.

Using the floral wire, you want to twist the wired around the center of the folded tissue paper.  Don't tie it too tight, or tie it too lose.  Wrapping the wire too tight will make it difficult to pull the tissue apart, causing it to rip and tear.  Wrapping the wire too lose will allow it to fall apart.  I like it to fit snuggly, while at the same time giving it room to expand.

Once it's all wrapped up, snip the excess wire off

There are two ways to trim this.... What I've done is a rounded edge, but you can also do a pointed edge.

Trim and round the edges all the way through each fold.  It doesn't have to be perfect.

Do this to both ends...and VOILA!

Open up the accordion, and hold it from the center where you twist tied the wire.

Then take the string, and tie it around the wire.  Make sure you tie the string first, because once you start fluffing and pulling the tissue apart, it becomes difficult to find the center wire.

Then gently, start peeling the tissue layers apart one by one... start at the top, and slowly work down to the base.  Its easy to tear, but try and get as close to the center wire as possible. 

I find that my arms get tired because i have no muscle.  So I like to find a door, or something that I can hang the pom pom on and finish the other half.  You don't want to lay it on a table because it could crush the paper....

Once you've got it hung.... keep on peeling!

ta da! it's all done!