Learning how to make tissue paper pineapple poufs is pretty easy. Once you know the basics of working with tissue poms to make things other than hanging party decor, you can move on to making all kinds of other party decorations–like tissue paper flamingos and tissue paper parrots.
When whipping up party decor, I really honestly try to do things as inexpensively as I can and in large pops of color. Getting big props that fill a lot of eye space and getting them on a shoe string is usually hard, unless you’re using the party staple, the tissue pouf. They don’t have to just be dangly balls hanging from the ceiling, you can transform them for party decor to match your theme, like maybe a tissue paper pineapple pouf like in our Left Shark Pool party, or a pool party flamingo.
If you’re throwing a luau or beach party, or aiming for the very trendy pineapple parties or flamingo parties that are making their way around the internet, you’ll really want to take a look at this tissue paper pineapple tutorial to add to your decor arsenal.
These tissue pineapples are crazy easy to make with nothing but paper and a little hot glue, and I bet once you start transforming your poufs you’ll get lots of other super creative ideas!
How to Make a Tissue Paper Pineapple Pouf
Confession time: I know how to make tissue poufs by hand, but the fact is, they’re so inexpensive to buy from the store now or on Amazon(buy them here), I don’t bother making them. Bonus to buying the poufs pre-folded: it’s a big time saver! For the green paper, I recommend finding a paper that a tad thinner than cardstock. You don’t want the leaves to be quite so stiff.
DIY Tissue Paper Pineapple Materials:
- Pre-folded yellow tissue pouf (buy them here)
- 2 sheets 12×12 inch green paper
- Glue gun (I love this one)
- Glue Sticks (buy them here)
Step 1: Fluff your pom. If you have some dud purchased poms that are a bit on the thin side instead of thick and fluffy, open the pom to one side, then double them up to make a whole round pouf. You can usually just tie the two half poufs together in the center.
Step 2: Draw and cut out your pineapple leaves–you’ll need 4 per tissue paper pineapple. Free-form cut these, as you don’t want them too uniform! I made mine a little slimmer at the top than the bottom.
Step 3: Shape up your leaves. I put a slight bend in my tissue paper pineapple leaves to make them stand up straight in them.
Step 4: Hot glue! We’re going to glue together the bottoms of the leaves. Put a bead of hot glue about 2 inches long in the bottom fold of each leaf and pinch together.
To make the whole leafy crown that sticks out the top of the tissue paper pineapple, glue the edges of the four leaves together.
To crown your tissue paper pineapple, put a little hot glue on either side of the green leaves and nestle into the folds of the tissue pouf.
I’ve put these in oversized beverage glasses with a little bit of paper shred as centerpieces, and I’ve also used them all on their own to decorate a beach party. Lots of ways to use them!
Tissue poms are easy to make into pineapples, and just as easy to make into flamingos.
How to Make a DIY Tissue Paper Flamingo
When I was playing around with making the DIY tissue paper flamingos, I really liked the idea of being able to hang them on the wall as flamingo party decor, so I only used the pouf opened to one side for the first one. Further experimentation was needed, so I made a DIY paper flamingo with a full round tissue pouf. To make it stand, the paper flamingo was placed on a dowel rod mounted in a base, kind of like a paper towel holder.
I loved the glittery flamingo head I made using glitter paper, but if you’re in a pinch, plain pink paper will also work. This time, you do need card stock so it will have the structure to stand up by itself.
How to Make a Tissue Paper Flamingo
Learn how to make a DIY tissue paper flamingo to decorate your luau party or flamingle party.
Materials
- Pre-folded pink tissue pouf
- 1 sheets 12x12 inch pink glitter cardstock
- Black glitter paper
- Glue gun
- Glue Sticks
- 4 inch round wood disc
- Dowel rod
- Black paint
Instructions
- Fluff your pouf!
- Draw and cut out your tissue paper flamingo head and legs. I free form drew a flamingo, and traced the beak for the black accent. You can use a 1/2 inch punch for the eye, or just cut a circle. The legs are 1/4 inch slices of black glitter paper.
- Hot glue! Get out your cordless glue gun and glue the black accents on the pink glitter paper flamingo head. I've tried tons of different adhesives on glitter paper, and nothing works quite as well as hot glue.
- Once your accents are in place, nestle the bottom of the flamingo head into the folds of the pink pouf (as near to the center as you can get) and use the hot glue gun to glue it in place.
- Drill a hole in the middle of your wood disc the same size as your dowel rod. Add a drop of wood glue or white glue to the bottom of the dowel rod, then place it into the drilled hole. The dowel should fit tightly. Your piece should look like a paper towel holder at this point. After the glue has set, paint the dowel and disc black.
- Glue the pink pouf to the dried black dowel.
- Glue the flamingo legs to the inside of the pouf folds so they hang from the bottom of the tissue pom. You can bend one of the legs and glue the bend in place for a little more interesting look on your flamingo.
Notes
Be sure to use nice FULL tissue poms for any creature projects. If your tissue poms are thin, open them to one side only and then glue or tie two poms together to get a fuller appearance.
This is so easy thank you! Initially I had a small amount of guilt when buy premade tissue poms and I got over it quickly. Why not make it easy on yourself.
I suppose we are in a good place when the craft stores decide what we’re doing is cool enough to make it for us, right? 🙂 If the cost-time benefit is good enough, I swallow up that I-didn’t-make-it-myself guilt quickly!
They look so much fun, and easy to make too – bonus! Pinning.
These are so cute! They would be absolutely perfect for a summer luau party! Thanks so much for sharing with us at Merry Monday this week.
I love pineapples and this looks so easy. Thanks for sharing!
The flamingo is so cute! We love flamingos around here so this is definitely something we’re going to make!
I love how they fit perfectly into those oversized beverage glasses ! I can just see how this crafty idea can be used for a watermelon, too!
So freaking adorable! Now if I can just use the glue gun without burning myself!!! Happy Foodie FriDIY!
These are so fun and festive! We’d love to have you share this at our weekly link party. https://www.thelifeofjenniferdawn.com/2016/06/farmers-market-meals-and-little-bird.html Hope to see you there!
Love these! So fun. It’s amazing what one can create with a glue gun! Visiting from Two Cup Tuesday.
Love these pineapples! They would make such awesome party decor for some many parties!
Thanks so much for sharing at The DIY Collective!
Where did you get the pedestal from??
It was the bottom to a cloche. I believe I purchased at hobby lobby?
What size tissue poms are these? The website linked goes directly to 12″ but not sure if that’s just the default size.
They are 12 or 14 inch. I did order them from Amazon; any size pom is going to work for this, though!
Made a flock of these for a ladies club bingo party. Flamingo Bingo! Effect was “wow!” wonderful! Be sure to double check the leg placement, however-their ankle is bent backwards and it it can look very strange if it appears to be bent like a human knee.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful design!
That’s amazing!! Would have loved to have seen that!! 🙂 🙂
What a cute and easy decoration!
These are so cute! I’m planning a luau for my family in June.
I love this idea! I’m stopping by from the Show & Tell link party. I’m so glad I found you. I’ve pinned & shared your link. Thanks for sharing!
Did you use 12″ poms? About how big does the flamingo stand? I think I’m going to make these as part of the centerpieces for my daughter’s birthday party.
I believe the stick was about 15 inches, 10 or 12 inch poms can be used. Hope you have a wonderful party!!
What is the stand?
The stand for the flamingo is one of these blank wood circles painted black: https://amzn.to/2rkQbzd . I drilled a hole in the center to insert the dowel.
Approx how long are the green leaves?