How To Make Those Tissue Pompoms
Okay, first of all I should say that those tissue pompoms I made for my 30th birthday party weren't my idea at all. Much like a large majority of the crafty things I do, I ripped them straight off from the grand highness herself, Martha Stewart.
That said, I found her instructions kind of....well, lacking, shall we say. (Yes, we shall indeed say that. It's kinder than what I should really say.) And since I've had a few people ask me how to make the tissue pompoms since I posted the pictures---including one person who wants to make a whole bunch for her wedding, to which I say my god, you are a better woman than I am (PS: hope you have a lot of gin in your house)---I thought I'd put together my own quick tutorial on how to do it.
Except instead of calling it "How To Make Those Tissue Pompoms," I should really have called it "How To Make An Enormous Paper Lettuce." Because this is what happens when you use green tissue paper, you see. (And oh, you will see.) Because of all those ruffles and layers, a tissue pompom made with green tissue paper ends up resembling nothing more than an oversized bibb lettuce. So I hope you'll take that as a warning: no green tissue paper. (Unless for some strange reason you're totally into the idea of making tissue paper versions of all your favorite salad components, in which case let's talk: I have a kickass idea for the tomatoes. And man, is there a world of possibilities for the celery.)
Anyway, onward!
First of all, to make those tissue pompoms (or maybe just an enormous paper lettuce, your call), you're going to need some tissue paper. I found my package of all-white tissue paper for the first batch at the grocery store, believe it or not ($4.99 for 50 sheets), but then my mother recently gave me an enormous package of EVERY TISSUE PAPER COLOR IN THE RAINBOW for one of my birthday presents (craft nerd alert!), which is how I ended up using the green for this tutorial and living to rue the day. Regardless, you can probably find tissue paper just about anywhere, though I'd suggest looking in the drugstore, Target, or Michael's first.
So lay eight sheets of tissue paper nice and flat on the ground (or the table, if you're feeling fancy, but my table was taken up with stuff like a bowl of fruit and my diet coke can and I couldn't be bothered to move it.)
Then switch the tissue paper around so it's in front of you vertically, rather than horizonally (which is how it is in this picture for some reason. Crap, I am failing at picture tutorials already!) With the tissue paper placed out in front of you vertically, start folding it "accordian style"---that's to say, forwards and then backwards, forwards and then backwards, as though you were making a fan. Each fold should be about an inch from the previous one, so that your stack of tissue paper starts to look like this:
And then this:
Until the whole thing is folded accordian-style and you have this:
Next you're going to need some steel wire. It looks kind of like this:
And as you can see, it cost me $2.99. I got it from this really awesome hardware store up the street run by a couple of really nice Romanian brothers, who are so nice, in fact, that I always feel guilty not buying, like, a two-hundred dollar power drill and instead just buying a package of $2.99 steel wire. But them's the breaks I guess. Maybe one day I'll win the lottery and go in a buy a whole bunch of spackle.
Anyway, cut yourself a piece of steel wire that's about six inches long, then pinch your accordian-folded tissue paper in the middle like this:
And wrap the wire around the middle a few times, as tight as you can make it without ripping anything. (By which I mean the paper. Not, like, a muscle in your stomach or anything. Don't tie it that tight. You don't want to injure yourself with the exertion.)
Look! Now you have something that looks like this:
But here's the clever part: take one of the ends of that wire, and kind of wrap it around the other wire, so that it makes a bit of a loop or a hook. Sort of like this:
Trust me, you will be glad you did this later. For now, though, maybe take a small-time out and snap an arbitrary photo of that cluttered coffee table you were just talking about, for no other reason than that you're still trying to figure out your new camera.
There it is! This is why you're making your lamp on the floor, you lazy so-and-so. Couldn't be bothered to move that vase of flowers.
Also, you might want to check in and see what's going on right now with The Bachelor. Oh, Tenley, Tenley, Tenley.
Okay, that's it, break's over. Next thing you need to do is trim both ends of your tissue paper stack, by holding the whole thing flat and closed, taking a sturdy pair of scissors, and rounding the end.
After that, you get to do the fun part, which is pulling the layers apart. Hold your pompom by the wire part in the middle and let each side fan out. Then choose one side and start pulling gently---very, very gently---on the first piece of tissue paper, so that it fans out from the rest. Pull it out from the bottom, as near to the wire as you can get; this will make for a floofier pompom once they're all floofed up. Hey, I think I just made up a word. Maybe two!
Pull gently, gently.....
Gently, gently, gently...
....until you've done one entire side and the pompom looks like this:
Kind of like a bunch of flowers! Or a bundle of broccoli!
Then do the same with the other side, until you get something like this:
Now go back in, find that hook you made with the metal wire, remember?
Then take a piece of clear fishing wire (also bought from the Romanian hardware store, conviently enough! Maybe they are making some money from me, after all) and tie a long piece to your wire hook so that you can hang your pompom from the ceiling. Holding it by the fishing wire, give it a few shakes to fluff it up a littlle and let it settle into its maximum fullness.
Look, you made a pompom!
Or maybe a giant lettuce!
Know what you also made? You also made your husband a promise that you wouldn't put this photo of him on the Internet and then BROKE IT HAHAHAHA. Well, that's what he gets for deciding to grow a beard.
So there you have, an eleventy-billion-part tutorial that'll hopefully make it super clear how to make your own tissue pompoms. Any questions?
Feb 17, 2010
Those are adorable! You just strengthened both the love and the hate sides of my love-hate relationship with Martha.
Feb 17, 2010
Very cute!
Also, thanks so much for detailed instructions. I generally need everything explaining to me like I'm five years old, and you did that. With added photos! (Seriously: I won't attempt to cook something if the recipe doesn't include a photo of how it's supposed to look at the end!)
I think I may actually attempt these. Just maybe not in green...
Feb 17, 2010
Excellent tutorial! Very clear!
Now I will make some tissue fluffballs to hang in my home and annoy my husband with their lack of purpose.
Feb 17, 2010
Well this is just all sorts of hilarious.
1. I looked at Martha's instructions aaages ago and found them super vague. (A la "buy tissue paper. Now you have a pom pom!" kind of vague)
2. I tried to make one, and thought I'd use ugly green paper for my trial run.
3. I have a photo of my boyfriend looking similarly unimpressed about my green floofy thing, which I pranced about with, yelling, "wheee!"
4. Kudos for the vegetable references. By screen-osmosis, I am now better informed and feel healthier.
Feb 17, 2010
I'd been wondering how those tissue pompoms were made ever since I saw the pictures.That was a pretty interesting tutorial, btw. Just as I was beginning to think it would be a breeze the word 'gently" hit the repeat button, and I knew I'd given up already!:-)
Feb 17, 2010
So Michael's also sells this fantastic kit for these suckers also - did you know that? It comes with the paper all segmented out and the end lopped off in cutely cuts so you just have to fold it, in different sizes and complementary colors, with the ties and hangars.
It's not much of a value but it DOES cut the time for those so inclined to purchase their way to a faster party.
I used the kit and a collection of pink-hued ones for a baby shower two summers ago and they were a HUGE hit. People were unreasonably impressed.
Feb 17, 2010
in fact i went on google to search up tissue pompom tutorials right after your first entry on them, but i got to say, yours is the best! and hey, Sean looks cute in a beard. but my boyfriend shaves every 2 days and as good as he looks, it's too rough for my tender skin! :P
Feb 17, 2010
Once, when I was in middle school and volunteering at a children's museum, we had to make about 500 of these in GIANT form to stick all around the grounds (I guess to replicate flowers?). I've never spent more time with tissue paper.
Feb 17, 2010
I made these two years ago for my birthday and yes, I also called them Floofs! For that is what they are. Floofy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/petithiboux/2817637623/in/photostream/
Feb 17, 2010
Great tutorial! They look so fun. A friend of mine made something similar for her wedding, but they were more along the lines of this (say, the orange one):
http://www.intimateweddings.com/blog/inexpensive-wedding-decor-ideas-diy...
I guess they are like what you did, but multiplied on one big ball:
http://www.projectwedding.com/wedding-ideas/diy-tissue-pomanders
Feb 17, 2010
Martha can take all the credit she wants, but my mom was making these way back in the 70's for my kiddie birthday parties. She used to use different pastel colors on each flower and she sometimes cut the paper in half and put the wire at the bottom of the accordian and then added a green tape wrapped stem - this way you could have a large bouquet of peony type 'flowers'.
Feb 17, 2010
I just hope my man is such a sucker for me. That would be lovely.
Could you work up a tutorial on that?
Feb 17, 2010
Poppy, my mum says she used to make these too! Back when she was a little girl, and also later with me when I was three or four. So you're right, Martha actually ripped US off!
Feb 17, 2010
I LOVE this! I also love that you included break photos. I always want to do that when I've done instructional posts, but I never do. Now I will.
Feb 17, 2010
YES.
Tissue pompoms = pew decorations for my wedding.
You're a ROCKSTAR. :)
Feb 17, 2010
I made many of these for our wedding a couple of years ago, and I have one caveat:
If you plan to use them as decor for an outdoor wedding, and it rains the day before, they will look sad and droopy. Not at all floofy. Best to keep them to indoor decor!
Feb 17, 2010
Q: how did you secure them to the ceiling? tape to the fishing wire? hooks nailed into ceiling?
Feb 17, 2010
Look! This person makes gorgeous KITS for them:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/PomLove
The Martha tissue paper is no longer available at Michaels. It broke my heart when I found out, because her colors were obviously the best.
Feb 17, 2010
Ally -- yep, a little square of tape on the fishing wire then stuck onto the ceiling. You might want to make the strand of fishing wire long enough that you can double up (kind of like a loop) so that the pompom doesn't drop.
Feb 17, 2010
The best part is the picture of your husband that you promised not to post... HAHAHAaahh!
Isn't it funny the way people let their faces go blank when they think they're not "in" the picture?
Priceless!
Feb 17, 2010
Yeah, I have a question. How will Tenly feel after she breaks from her moral code and puts out for Jake, and then he goes and chooses that cross-eyed, bad-weave, brain-dead horror-slut over her?
I think she's gonna feel pretty crappy.
Feb 17, 2010
THANK YOU. I am totally making these to hang all over our reception venue for our wedding in July (at Mystic Seaport, in CT).
Feb 17, 2010
What the cute! I am so going to make those for my nephews fourth b-day party. Though, he'll probably want red and blue so they can be Spiderman-like.
Feb 17, 2010
so, he's trying out for the 49ers cheerleading squad?!
Feb 17, 2010
... HA HA!
Feb 17, 2010
I just want to take pictures of fat babies, a la ann geddes, in front of the green tissue pom poms.
i didn't mean for that to sound nearly as creepy as it does. thanks fot the tutorial.
Feb 17, 2010
YAY! Thank you! I'm not making these for a wedding (Thank God), but I was considering it for my husband's 40th birthday. Unless they are too girly for a boy's birthday party. What do you think?
Feb 18, 2010
Chirky - I think you will have a husband with the same look on his face as Sean up there. LOL.
Great tutorial Holly - Bravo!
Feb 18, 2010
I have to say, I am pretty sure my husband would brain me if I tried to hang these up for his birthday party. Well, maybe not brain. Probably more like stare blankly at me in utter incomprehension, like I tried to feed him a vegetable or something.
I also remember making these as a kid for some kind of slave labor deal (I think my mom's friend's baby shower). I am pretty sure Martha owes all of us some kind of royalties.
Feb 18, 2010
I can't believe you didn't use your Martha corner-rounder. Her Highness would be so disappointed.
Feb 18, 2010
I am a longtime believer (and now it's further confirmed) that Martha Stewart, in order to maintain her superior status, adjusts her recipes/instructions -- sometimes even just by a teaspoon or critical detail or *something* -- in order to ensure that hers will ALWAYS be better than ours.
Love her anyways, but there it is.
Feb 18, 2010
Thank you! I was totally going to do this for a party or two but wimped out because Martha's tutorial confused me. Thanks! Flouffy lettuce!
Feb 19, 2010
This is not related to tissue pompoms, but I have to say, I love the word spackle. So much better than polyfilla.
Feb 19, 2010
Hi Holly
love it! I have a question for you: where is your living room rug from?
Feb 19, 2010
Sonia -- it's just IKEA! It's called the Tarnby: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60050172
Feb 21, 2010
My daughter and her Godmother made 3 purple ones to hang in her room. They've been there for quite a while at this point (was it this birthday - 5 months ago- or last birthday? hmmm
Feb 22, 2010
Holy sexy beard, Batman! That's quite a husband you have there, Holly.
Apr 05, 2010
These are great instructions. I've tried to do the same except that mine look like the parted red sea. How do you get yours to look like a round ball? Did you use tape to close the gap?
Jul 10, 2010
I've seen instructions for these on the web, but I have to say, yours are the most helpful (love that hangy-thingy) AND entertaining. Thanks!
Jul 29, 2010
Thank you so much for posting this. In combination with your wonderful wit and superb pictures I am ready to have a go!
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