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How to Make Professional Mexican Tissue Paper Flowers

Paper flowers are used in Mexico for decoration during holidays such as the Day of the Dead and Cinco de Mayo. Real flowers in abundance are too expensive, so the custom of making paper flowers began. Cheap and easy to make, Mexican paper flowers can decorate a tabletop, a Christmas tree, or a shrine.

Things You'll Need

Four pieces of tissue or crepe paper
Scissors
Green pipe cleaner

Instructions

- 1
  Place the four pieces of tissue paper on top of each other.
- 2
  Starting at one end, accordion-fold all the pieces of tissue in one-inch increments, so that your finished piece is 1 x 6 inches in dimension. It is just the same as folding a fan, back and forth the entire way.
- 3
  Cut the ends of the paper into a rounded shape. It should be the shape of a tongue depressor at this point.
- 4
  Fold the pipe cleaner in half.
- 5
  Squeeze the tissue paper in the middle and wrap the pipe cleaner around it, twisting the pipe cleaner to hold the paper tightly. This is the stem of the flower. If you wish, pull out a section of the pipe cleaner to into a little loop to make it look like a leaf.
- 6
  Fan out the edges of the tissue paper, beginning with the top layer of paper and continuing on to the fourth and final layer. Be careful not to tear the paper. Fan the edges out and up, making it a three-dimensional flower.

Paper Crafts