Tissue Paper Poppies

These gorgeous tissue paper poppies are very easy to make!

scissors (for paper)

red tissue paper (2 sheets)

3 red or green pipe cleaners

roll of thin green floral tape

glue gun (I used low-temp)

black acrylic craft paint

craft paint brush with a fine tip

optional: vase and small rocks to display finished poppies

1. Open up and lay out one sheet of tissue paper. Using scissors, cut the tissue paper in half vertically (start at the side closest to you and cut straight ahead to the top edge). Your tissue paper will now be in two pieces.
2. Cut each half into quarters (4 equal sized pieces).
3. Stack each set of 4 pieces neatly, with all the edges lined up with each other. You will now have two stacks of 4 pieces each, enough to make 2 poppies.
4. Repeat for the second sheet of tissue paper. If you use two sheets of tissue paper, you will have enough to make 4 poppies, though only 3 are pictured in this project.

1. Put one stack of 4 sheets in front of you, with one of the short edges closest to you.
2. Next, you are going to "accordion fold" the stack of tissue paper. Beginning with the short side close to you, fold all 4 sheets of tissue paper away from you , about 1 centimeter.
3. Holding the fold in place, flip the tissue paper and repeat the 1 centimeter fold. Flip back to the other side, and fold again. Flip again and fold, continuing the folding and flipping until all the tissue paper is folded (see picture). If there is a little "extra" tissue paper left over, you can trim that off with scissors (but don't cut into the folds!)

Holding the folded tissue paper, find the middle and fold a pipe cleaner around the folded tissue paper, leaving a little "extra." Pinch the two ends (short and long) together close to the tissue paper and twist several times to secure.

1. Rotate the folded tissue paper slightly so that you can see the folds.
2. Fan out the tissue paper on one side of the poppy, exposing the folds.
3. Gently separate the top layer of tissue paper and pull it away from the other layers of tissue paper, towards the center of the poppy. Repeat with each of the other 3 layers.
4. Rotate the poppy and repeat step 3 on the other side of the poppy.
5. Use your hand to gently "fluff" and arrange the tissue paper poppy so that it looks more like a real poppy. Don't worry if the paper gets slightly wrinkled or bent. Just play with it until you like how it looks.

1. On the underside of the poppy, apply a small amount of hot glue right at the top of the exposed pipe cleaner.
2. Immediately, press the end of the floral tape onto the glue. Wrap the floral tape once around the pipe cleaner stem.
3. Holding the floral tape at a slight diagonal angle, begin wrapping the floral tape around the pipe cleaner stem, gradually working your way down the the bottom of the stem, overlapping the floral tape onto itself. You will want to use a bit of pressure so that the floral tape will stick. The tighter you wrap the floral tape, the thinner the stem will be.
4. When you get to the bottom of the pipe cleaner, tear off the floral tape, apply a dot of hot glue to the pipe cleaner stem and press the floral tape to the glue to seal.

Open up the middle of the poppy a bit so you can see it. Using the paintbrush with a fine tip, apply black acrylic craft paint to the inside center of the poppy and slightly up the sides of petals (but staying fairly close to the center). It does not need to be "perfect" because it will look more natural that way. Allow to dry.

If you wish, display your finished poppies! I used a narrow glass vase with small rocks. Put the poppies into the vase at slightly different heights and hold them in position while pouring the small rocks into the vase.

Tip: Since the poppy stems are not very strong, you can make them stand up better by holding the 3 stems close together and wrapping a short length of floral tape around the stems.

Enjoy your beautiful poppies!