it was worth it…
… but barely 
I spent a lot of nights making tissue paper flowers.
I thought I made enough of them.
I didn’t.
So my mom was a champ and spent an entire day making enough with me.
And now they are done! And pretty! And I love them! Here is how you can make your own.
I followed Martha’s how-to, but hers leaves a lot to the imagination so i thought i would fill in some blanks for you 
Here is how i made my pom poms, step by step.
Step 1. Gather your supplies. Cut your tissue paper into 5″x10″ rectangles. Martha says to use a special covered wire, I just used the silver kind, worked out fine. I got it at Michael’s. Scissors. What you will also need are the styrofoam balls. You can get these at most craft stores. I bought mine in LA at this huge craft store so they were pretty cheap, which was nice. That was also where I found the marigold tissue paper, which I was having a hard time finding in stores.
Step 2. Fold. Fold the paper 4 sheets at a time, in 5’8ths of an inch folds. (Does that make sense? Fold it a little less than an inch thick) Do your best to be precise and fold it the same the entire way. Sometimes at the end I had to trim a little off for it to be even.
3. Check. (This isn’t really a step, more of a “this is what it should look like now” picture )
Step 4. Attach the wire and round the edges. I cut my wire into 4″ to 5″ strips. I then folded it at the center over the tissue paper and then twisted it all the way down, pretty tightly. You will cut the twisted wire later to about a half inch length, but it is easier to work with when it is long, and wire is cheap I then rounded the edges of the paper. You can do it rounded or pointy, it is up to you!
Step 5. Separate. Carefully separate the 4 pieces from one side and then the other (rather than alternating sides) It is ok it if tears once in a while, you won’t be able to tell once they are all close together on the ball. Just an FYI, for a few of the balls we had to use fuchsia tissue paper from Paper Source, and it was much thicker paper and more difficult to separate.
Step 6. Prep the ball. I took another 5″ piece of wire, wrapped it around my finger and twisted the ends together. (Actually, my bridesmaid Natalie made the hoops Thanks Lie!) I then put a little hot glue on it and stuck it all the way into the ball. This will be what we wrap the ribbon around later.
Step 7. Prep the flowers. I am not certain that hot glue is necessary, but we made these 2 months in advance and did not want any flowers falling out. Put a dab of hot glue right on the base of the flower, where the wire meets the paper.
Step 8. Place the flowers. You can see in this picture how short I cut the wire. If you leave it too long it will bend when you try to put it in and that is no bueno. Place the flowers into the ball, close together. This is where I miscalculated. I had originally thought that it would take 18 flowers to cover one of the larger balls, but once I made sure there were no bald spots and they were nice and full it was more like 30. Better safe then sorry, make a lot of flowers!
Step 9. Attach ribbon and enjoy! I bought two kinds of pink ribbon and alternated. We decided we will hang them in clumps of three, two clumps over the cake table and one clump over the guest book table. (Don’t hold me to that!) We weren’t sure how long we needed the ribbon to be so we made it really long just in case. You could use any kind of ribbon, twine, shoelaces, whatever! We were thinking of using fishing wire to make them look suspended but thought that may look too modern for our space
I hope this helps some of you out there to do your own! Although folding all the flowers got pretty tedious, I am so happy with the end result! They were very easy to put together and will add a big pop of color without taking a lot of money from our wallets!
32 comments
You did such a great job on these! I’ve been going back and forth on whether it would be worth it, but seeing these I think I definitely want them.
These are absolutely gorgeous! You did an amazing job. What a great project.
they look AWESOME!!!! you guys did a great job!
These are so cool. Marina and Alli want some for their rooms!
Those are amazing. I’d love to do something like that, but I know my own level of patience … and it seems like something left to those more industrious than me!
AH! These look so beautiful! You are a DIY goddess!
Thanks for the pictures, they look fab!
hooray! thank you for this! they are wonderfuL!
They look awesome! My mom always makes these for big birthdays and celebrations and such. My dad always forgets to save them. Its a vicious cycle!
They really are beautiful!
They turned out beautifully! Great job!
Those are great! What a fabulous idea! I bet this saved a ton of money!
Wow those came out great!
they look awesome! thank you so much for the step by step!
crafty !!
Yay!! Thank you – they look BEAUTIFUL!!
I am definitely going to blog about this. Great work:)
[...] arriving in the mail. I am going to attempt to make those fun looking tissue pomanders following instructions from Heather. I’m only going to make one. One BIG one. To hang above the center of the [...]
Those are beautiful! Love the color too.
This is an amazing…..I was also going to do the big pompoms by martha stewart but this also looks incredible.
Definitely trying that tip for my wedding!!!
I’m going to attempt these for my ceremony! yay!! You’re wedding turned out absolutely beautiful!!! You’re amazing!!! Also, you inspired me to make my own inviations — they didn’t look anything like yours, but the inspiration saved me $1000 and got me cute invites!!!
I’m a new reader of your blog & LOVE all your DIY postings. Thank you SO much for this great step-by-step tutorial. I’m making hot pink & light pink tissue flower balls (hung with black/white zebra print ribbon) for my sister’s baby shower in October. I’ve only made 75 flowers so far…so still a ways to go. But can’t wait to see the final product
[...] The view is what sold us, and lucky for us July 18th was a clear and gorgeous day! And didn’t the balls turn out great!? I was so happy that Christa agreed to set everything up for us, she really [...]
[...] mickey decoration was made with floral balls and tissue paper flowers. I followed this tutorial at We Met In A Bar for making the flowers and securing them to the balls. Then I used kebab skewers to connect the [...]
*thank you* so much for this posting! what an awesome way to make Martha’s poms much better! it took a looooong time, but i successfully made varying sizes in pink & purple for my daughter Olive’s first birthday party. they were a hit with everyone, and lent so much to the photography from her big day. I share this link with anyone who asks about them!
thanks again!
[...] mickey decoration was made with floral balls and tissue paper flowers. I followed this tutorial at We Met In A Bar for making the flowers and securing them to the balls. Then I used kebab skewers to connect the [...]
Very very pretty!! Thank you for such a great tutorial.
Ohmygosh this tutorial rocked my socks! I was in a wedding planning nightmare and couldn’t decide on ANYTHING but this tutorial helped get the ball (or pom pom) rolling by getting me to focus my nervous energy on crafts for the wedding!
They came out FABULOUS and i’ll send you pictures soon when my wedding photog sends them over =) Thank you so so so much for the inspiration!
xoXOxo
Jenn @ peasandcrayons.blogspot.com
great! I can’t wait to make some!
Those are so gorgeous…a nice way to pep up a wintry house too!
I’m going to make Minnie Mouse heads with this. I’ll make two small balls for the ears, and one bigger one for head and then attach a ribbon bow. I have and 8 and 9 year old that can help make flowers and will love doing it! I remember making giant ones will full sheets of tissue paper in different colors when I was my older girls age. This will be for my soon to be two year old. Her birthday is in July, so we’ll have time! THANKS!
WOW!! So gorgeous!!
[...] mickey decoration was made with floral balls and tissue paper flowers. I followed this tutorial at We Met In A Bar for making the flowers and securing them to the balls. Then I used kebab skewers to connect [...]
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