Tissue Paper Carnations

I love carnations.  They come in pretty colors, they're cheap, and they last a long time in a vase.  I do have to be careful that our kitties don't get into them though.  The ones I have right now are starting to die off and fall apart.  I was looking at them and thought how much they look like tissue paper so I thought I would try to make some.  They came out pretty well.  It's easy to find tissue paper in the right colors and the other materials are easy to improvise.

To make mine I used:

• Tissue paper (if you want a pattern you could use cupcake liners, and they are already in the right shape)
• Safety eyes (you could also use brads)
• Thick paper/card stock/note cards
• Glue & tape
• Drinking straws
• Green paper/washi tape/floral tape (mine was origami paper)

To start I cut some small squares of tissue paper.  I didn't really measure this, I just folded the length of tissue paper until I had it down to a small enough size and then made squares based on the folds so I could cut a lot at one time.  Probably around 3 or 4 inches square and it's ok if they are not perfect because you will be cutting them.  I used about 10-12 squares for each flower, and it's best if you cut all the squares you want for each flower so they are the same size.  You could use more or less squares depending on how full you want the flower to look.

To make the flowers, fold each square in half and then into thirds to make a 6 petal flower.  Then cut through all layers to make a petal shape.  You can also cut slits in the top of the petals to make them look more realistic.  (I tried to use my pinking shears for this but they're really cheap and just smooshed everything around.)  Then open it up to see your flower.

Once you have all of your flowers cut out, poke a hole in the center of each flower and stack them all up together.  Make sure they're all turned different directions so the petals don't line up.  Push your safety eye or brad through all the holes and secure.  I used a safety eye here and it was a little difficult to close the backing without tearing the paper.  I popped the backing onto the first notch with my hands and then set it right side up with the backing resting in the groove of a spool of thread and tapped the top of the eye with a hammer until it closed.

When they are all secured together in a stack, use your thumb and index finger to make a circle and push all the petals upward and together.  Squish the bottom a little to help it take shape.  To preview how it's going to look with a different number of petals, you can use the cap of a marker or seam ripper and a pen or crochet hook to gently push the petals down into a cone.

For the stem, I used some drinking straws.  I wanted the stems to be a little thinner than the straw so I cut a slit up the length of the straw and overlapped the edges a bit and taped it back together.  I finished the stem with pieces of note cards and green paper.

I still need to take some pictures of my finished flowers!