DIY Tissue Paper Pomanders

At the weekend I was discussing with one of my brides what her younger flower girls could hold rather than flowers and I suggested she used tissue paper pomanders, they’re simple to make and easy for the girls to hold.

Here are the basic instructions for making the flowers/ pompoms (inspired by Martha Stewart’s large hanging pompom instructions, here) which you can either gather together in a ball like I have or for a more sturdy pomander stick into a polystyrene ball as shown here on the Ruffled Blog.

You will need Tissue paper, florist’s wire, scissors and ribbon.
(If attaching to a polystyrene ball you will also need a glue gun)

1. Take a sheet of tissue paper and fold 3 times so you have 8 rectangular pieces to cut out and then stack on top of each other as shown.

2. Concertina fold the paper, roughly 2-3cm wide, to the top. Fold in half to mark the centre point.

3. Wrap a piece of floral wire around the middle. It works better to keep the wire flat rather than scrunching up the paper. Trim the edges to give a rounded petal shape.


4. Then holding from the wire gradually pull out all the folds, pulling alternatively left and right until you have created your flower.



5. Gather you flower heads together to create your pomander and twist your wires together. Take a ribbon and tie to the centre of the pomander to create a handle to hold the pomander by. I’ve used 3 flower heads here for a loose pomander but you could use more to create a fuller more packed pomander.

You don’t have stick to one colour either you could use contrasting colours for individual flowers or layer different shades of the same colour within a single flower as well.