A couple of months ago, Jenny - the very lovely editor of PaperCraft Inspirations - asked me to work up a feature on different ways to use tissue paper. You can see the results in the September issue (on sale right about now), and alongside ruffles, twists, layers, buttons and twirly skirts, there's a miniature version of an old tissue-paper favourite.
I made these flowers for Halloween a couple of years ago, and although the large scale can look fantastic on card projects, it doesn't leave room for very much else. By scaling it down, you create a much more versatile embellishment and your tissue supplies will stretch a little further, too. This is especially useful if you're using patterned tissue (e.g. Decopatch), which is more expensive.
YOU WILL NEED:
Tissue paper (plain or patterned)
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Thin wire (e.g. fuse or jewellery wire)
Small button or circle of card
PVA glue
STEP BY STEP
Measure and cut out two strips of tissue paper, each around 20cm long and 5-6cm wide. With the sheets layered one on top of the other, concertina-fold along the full length.
Cut a small piece of jewellery wire and wrap around the centre of your folded tissue. Twist the wire ends together to hold in place.
To create a spiky, dahlia-style flower, snip each end of the tissue strip into a triangular point, or, for a softer look, cut into a curve.
Starting at one end of the strip, pull the upper part of each fold upwards, and the lower part downwards. Pull gently but firmly, making your way to the opposite end of the strip.
Repeat on the other side of the strip, to create a complete flower-head.
You might be able to see in the image above that a little of the folded wire is still visible in the centre of the flower. To cover this up, glue a small button or circle of card in the centre of the flower.
You can then use your tissue flowers in just about any way you like. I made this . . .
. . . and (using tissue-like mulberry paper for a slightly different look) this . . .
. . . as well as the card you can see (or may already have seen) in the magazine.
Once you get the hang of it, these flowers are really simple to make, and you can keep adjusting their size to fit your projects exactly.
If you look closely at the giant flower card above, you'll also see it's possible to work your folds with two different tissue-paper colours - one on the top and one underneath. It looks slightly less effective on the smaller flowers, but makes a real statement on larger ones.
Don't be put off if you aren't a card-maker, either. You could try adding a single flower as a pretty finishing touch on a gift or parcel, fix a pin to the back and wear one as a corsage or, by using a longer length of wire to create a stem, make several to display in a vase.
Once you're done, you might also want to hang on to any tissue-paper leftovers. Because I just don't know when enough's enough, there's another super-simple, tissue-based DIY coming your way later in the week.
x
