Tissue Pouf Ball Pom Pom Arrangement Tutorial and How To- Part 1

I’ve had a few requests on how to make these fluffy little tissue poufs/balls/pom-poms. I promised I would do a tutorial, and I’ve finally gotten to it!

Tissue poms are so versatile–hanging from the ceiling, sticking up out of the ground like giant flowers, or, like I’m going to explain today, as pretty “flower” arrangements. They do look a bit like peonies or hydrangeas (if you squint your eyes and tilt your head to the right.) They can be made into structured arrangements like the one I did for the pink elephant baby shower above (which I’m covering in these posts)…

or any number of ways, like this loose bouquet in a vase.  But enough about that! on to the good stuff…

You’ll need:

–   9 sheets of tissue paper, your choice of color for each pom pom

–   3 lengths Floral wire (about 7 inches)

–   3 Thin dowel rods or wooden shishkabob sticks cut to desired lengths

–   Small block of floral foam

–   Small pot or other container

–   Embellishments for pot

–   Sharp scissors

For the next six weeks, I live in a very small town where WalMart is the shopping mecca. Goes to show you can do a lot with just some basic supplies! They carry packs of tissue paper in a good variety of solid colors that come 9 sheets to a pack. If you don’t use a pre-packaged set of tissue like this one, 9 to 12 sheets of tissue paper is about right to make a pouf like this. More is not better in this case, as they will turn out too tight and lose that airy quality they have with fewer sheets.

Open up the cut sheets and lay them on top of each other to make a stack of 18 (or however many you are using) sheets.

Since we need little tissue poufs for our arrangement, we’re going to cut our stack to 8 inches wide. The remaining 18 inches is the perfect size for a big tissue ball…you use the exact same method to make a big one as a small one.

Take your 8 x 10 inch stack of papers and cut it in half so you get two 8 x 5 stacks. You only need one of these stacks for a tissue pouf. Getting these cut is the hard part–the rest is easy peasy!

The 5×8 stack will be accordion folded on the long side. It really doesn’t matter much how wide the fold is, but 1 inch is a good size.

Here’s where you get out your floral wire.

With the accordion fold all squeezed together,  wrap the floral wire around the center then twist the ends so they are tightly secured. If you’re not making arrangements with your poufs, pipe cleaners or twist ties also work here.

At this point, I like to cut the ends in a semi-circle so there is a nice scalloped edge when they are opened, as you can see below. You can also do a triangle end, or just leave it be.

You’ll notice that a single sheet doesn’t make a  complete arc to make up a whole half sphere. This is where a little finessing comes in. When you pull up the sheets, alternate pulling them to the left and right of center. This will give a nice ball shape.

For each half of the tissue pom, you’ll pull 9 sheets to each side.

This is with 9 sheets on the left and right pulled to the middle.

You flip it over and do it all again on the other side!

Grab the center and give it a good snap/shake to fluff all the sheets up, and you have yourself some tissue pouf ball pom-pom goodness! Stay tuned for how to put these lovelies into a nice arrangement for your party table…