These Balls Look a Lot Bigger With Flowers On 'Em

That's what she said!

This is pretty much how the entire DIY Paper Tissue Pomander Making Festival went - one ball joke after another. But at the end, me and BM Pumpkin ended up with this! [Miss Magic's Note: These were for Mrs. Pumpkin's wedding which was in September 2010, where I was MOH!]
 
If that doesn't look like one big ball of flowers, then I don't know what does!

BM Pumpkin on left, Miss Magic on right, big ball of flowers in the middle - the ball was only half finished which is why it looks kinda lopsided.

OK, so you can find about a million tutorials online about how to make this amazingly realistic looking ball of tissue paper pomanders. However, many of them leave out crucial directions. So, here it is. The Number One, All Inclusive, No Fail, Easy Way to Make DIY Tissue Paper Pomanders!!!

1. Get the stuff you need. I would recommend starting with a trial run to see if you like the final effect, so just buy the minimum to make a couple. You can get this all at Michael's or AC Moore.

• 4 or 5 inch Styrofoam ball. The flowers add about another 3-4 inches total, so consider that.

• tissue paper. You'll need, like, one big pack of it. Or as Project Wedding says "For each pomander, you’ll need approximately 72 sheets of tissue paper cut [to size]."

• scissors

• 18 or 22 gauge wire

• wire cutters

• a ruler or something to measure with.
  

• some good music, a friend or two, and some alcohol. These are not necessary but are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED if you want the BEST pomanders.
  

2. Put four pieces of tissue paper on top of each other. Measure and cut to 5" x 10". (Using smaller balls? You can use smaller pieces of paper, which will result in smaller flowers. Some sites say 4" x 7". Just play around with size.). Cut it as neat as you can but don't kill yourself over it - it does not need to be perfect. Hooray for that!

3. Put the 4 pages of 5" x 10" tissue paper in front of you. The pages should be stacked on top of each other. You're gonna fold them like a fan accordion style now, so that the fan is 5" wide - not 10" wide as we initially tried - that makes for really long, not floofy flowers. Make your folds about 1/2". Again, it does not have to be perfect. Should look something like this:

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4. Cut some wire about 4-5 inches long. Measure it the first time and then guesstimate the length thereafter, cuz guess what? It doesn't have to be perfect! I love paper crafts!!!

5. Wrap the wire around the middle of the accordion folded fan paper, leaving a long end sticking out that can be poked into the ball later. From Project Wedding again,

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(We were too busy working to take many pics.)

6. We forgot this step about every other time. Take your scissors and trim the ends into a rounded shape (no perfection needed here), like Mrs. D'Orsay did!

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7. OK, now's where it gets a bit tricky, at least the first few times you do it. It's time to FLOOF the flower. Everyone online says fluff but it's more intense than that, hence the term "floof." Start from the top layer on the left and floof up, then do top layer on right, then next layer on left, then next layer on right, and so on. You basically want the flower looking like a rose petal pointing up, which in this case is away from the wire sticking out. Be gentle the first couple of times to get used to floofing and not tearing the tissue paper, then you can work it harder (insert obvious "that's what she said" comment here).

8. Stuff the wire end into the ball. The closer you stuff the flowers in together, the more authentic the "Wow, looks like a big ball of flowers!" effect. You can make it as tight or loose as you like, but most generally agree that tighter is better. (Minds out of the gutter, ladies!)

SEE?? This white one is the one we worked on together. 

PRO tip: Do it assembly style! Cut a bazillion pages, then fold a bazillion pages, and so on and so forth. Even better, get multiple friends to help with each step along the way! While drinking your favorite beverage and listening to your favorite tunes! For real, time flies when you are having fun and creating flower balls! Here's some more beauties to check out!

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Mrs. D'Orsay's Beauties

You can even make tissue paper flower wreaths! How pretty would these look on a church door?

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Have you had luck with any DIY projects? Have the online instructions left out directions you thought were critical?