Why I'm Glad I Have 9 Months to Go...

From the beginning of the wedding planning process, I have wanted to make the tissue paper flowers and pomanders that are so popular these days. They seem really easy, which is good for a craft-phobe like me. This led to the decision that the poms would be used to line the aisle, since the decorations will really only be up and used for about 15 minutes - no need for fancy flowers! Besides, I made a couple in red and black for my graduation party, and one of them looked pretty good.

I know there are approximately 10 million tutorials for these things out there, but I thought I would share how I do them. There always seemed to be a couple missing steps in them, at least for me since I like literally every step to be documented. My crafting level is very low, so I really need the super-detailed instructions! I have also noticed that most tutorials proceed as if no problems ever happen in the crafting world.. which, uhm, never happens with me. Without any further ado....

1. Decide to make pomander flowers. Set out all necessary things on your coffee table to get "before" photograph and document your DIY-diva self. This is also a useful step even if you're not doing photo documentation, just to make sure you have everything you need and you don't have to get up again.


2. Find FI's camera since yours has been stolen. Realize that, although the camera is at the apartment, FI takes all the memory cards with him wherever he goes. Curse.

3. Wait.

(during this time, I watched Bones.)

4. Decide to start making flowers anyway, just to get a head-start. Get sidetracked by personality quiz that you have to do to apply for a job. Curse. Once FI gets home, realize that memory cards have been sitting on the desk the whole time.

5. Lay out your tissue paper in stacks of 4. I alternated a darker color purple and a lighter color purple, with the darkest on the bottom, just so there was some shade variance within each "flower".


6. Cut tissue paper into strips 5" by 10". It really doesn't matter if it's perfectly straight, so if you are scissor-inept like I am (they don't ever teach lefties how to use scissors) it doesn't really matter. Believe that it will all even out in the end.


7. Stack four 5"x10" rectangles together, then start folding them accordion style. Other tutorials recommend making each fold exactly 5/8", and making sure you stay perfectly straight, but I'm here to tell you that it really doesn't matter. Normal flowers don't have perfectly even petals! As long as they're all the same general size, they will turn out fine. I think.


8. Round the edges. You could also just make the edges pointy by cutting an arrow shape, but I prefer the rounded look.


9. Fold the folded-rectangles in half, so you can find the center point. Wrap floral wire/pipe cleaner around the middle section and then twist the ends together, making sure you leave a piece long enough to stick in to your Styrofoam ball.


10. Carefully pull apart the layers. I don't have a specific order I go in, I just kind of feel my way with each one. Sometimes I do all one side, sometimes I go layer by layer around the whole thing. If you tear one bit, don't worry, because once it's all fluffed up no one will notice.


11. If you're impatient like me, stick the flowers into the ball as you go. I use 3" balls, and they take approximately ____ flowers to fill out. So the next step is just to repeat steps 4-7 until you've filled up 15 balls (or however many you need)

11. After you've finished one ball, realize that it's lumpy and not at all what you had imagined. Contemplate what to do with over 1000 sheets of tissue paper.


Did you have grand DIY dreams that didn't quite turn out like you planned?