Tissue Paper Flowers & A New Cross Stitch Project

I've been a homebody lately, puttering around the house soaking up the sunshine and happy things.  I've been dabbling with needle and thread (more about this in a bit) and had a little flower making extravaganza to add some cheerful goodness to our home.  They are beautiful to have some extra on hand to put on top of a gift too.

To make a tissue paper flower, all you'll need is:

• Tissue Paper
• Scissors
• Pipe Cleaners

I got the mega pack of tissue in the gift wrap aisle...isn't it happy and colorful?

Select a piece...I cut mine in half, now fold in half,

If you like, you can fold it again to make a smaller flower, or a above for a larger flower.

Now fold into a zig zag/accordion,

Fold the accordion and a pipe cleaner in half,

Secure the pipe cleaner around the tissue accordion as shown below with a tight twist to keep in place,

You can skip the next step if you like, but I wanted mine to have a little leaf.  To make the leaf, bend the pipe cleaner as shown below,

Wrap it around,

And bend it down.

Twist at the base of the leaf to secure.

Bend the leaf apart to make it more "leafy" looking.

Trim the edges of the accordion at the top to give it more of a flower shape.  Try experimenting with both pointy tipped petals and rounded petals for a variety of different looking flowers.

Gently pull apart the paper and it fluff up.  I found that the less I handled the paper the crisper and less crumpled they looked.

Pretty...plus they'll never wilt!

And onto the cross stitch,

I'm in the very beginning stages of a cross stitch sampler.  It is for a wedding, with the names and dates to be put on later.  It is very traditional in its layout...geometric with different borders, edges, and block letters.

The rectangular shape will eventually be a lovely 3-tiered cake.  Can you tell by looking at it that I like to jump around from area to area?  I'm not sure that is the "proper" way to go about doing it, but it's how I like to work on it.  It keep things interesting.

However you are making your stitches today dear readers, whether with a needles or a hook, enjoy!