When deciding on decorations for our church I knew I wanted to keep things simple. Our church is very old (101 years to be exact) and it is very simple and classic so we wanted our decorations to reflect the same aesthetic. The pews are a deep rich mahogany and I wanted to line the aisle with pomanders to add something special without going overboard. I knew that live flowers were going to cost way more than we wanted to spend so I was ready to put my DIY hat on and come up with an alternative to the real deal. I loved how well my bridesmaid bouquets turned out, so I wanted to try another type of paper flowers, this time using tissue paper.

We’ve actually been working on the flowers for these pomanders since May, you’ll understand why they’ve taken so long in a minute. I just love the way they turned out though. Pomanders are just so cute and cheery!

To make these babies I gathered the following supplies:

1. 24pk of tissue paper
2. 4″ styrofoam ball
3. fishing line
4. 1″ grosgrain ribbon
5. upholstery needle
6. 36″ ruler
7. 26 gauge floral wire
8. scissors
9. hot glue gun
10. needle nose pliers

I knew I was going to need a lot of tissue paper [we're also using this same process for the centerpieces, and got all of my tissue paper at once] so I headed over to a local party supply store that sells it in bulk. I knew that one pack of tissue paper was 20″x30″ and contained 24 sheets. I knew that one pomander would use about 24 flowers, and that each flower contained 4 sheets, and that one set of 4 sheets made 12 flowers, meaning that one pack would make 72 flowers.

Confused yet? It’s just tissue paper math.

I wanted to make twenty pomanders because there are twenty rows of pews at the church, and I wanted one pomander on every other pew (20 rows = 40 pews = 20 pomanders). So I ended up getting 4 packs of white tissue paper and 4 packs of ivory (1 pack = 3 pomanders, 20/3 = about 7 so I did 4 of each color to mix things up knowing I’d have extra paper leftover). So after all of this crazy math, the grand total of paper flowers would be 480. See why it’s been taking so long?

To make the flower I cut my 20″ x 30″ tissue paper into 5″ x 10″ strips like so:

At the beginning I would cut the paper in small groupings to make perfectly straight lines, but I quickly realized it doesn’t matter how neat I was at the beginning, they all still looked like flowers, so I started just cutting the whole pack at once to save time.

Each flower is made up of four 5″ x 10″ stacked pieces that I accordion folded into 1/2″ folds.

 Then I cut my floral wire into 6″ pieces.

I folded it in half and twisted it around the middle of my folded paper.

After twisting the wire all the way down I rounded each end of the folded paper which would eventually create my petals.

I treated my wire as my flowers “stem” and began fluffing out each layer toward the middle of my flower, using this method.

After I fluffed both sides, my flower was compete!

The “stems” end up being too long and weak so I folded each one over in half and pinched it with needle nose pliers.

After repeating this process for the rest of my flowers, I was ready to assemble the pomander. I used a 4″ styrofoam ball and tied a piece of fishing line around it with a loop large enough to fit around each pew.

Then I poked a hole into the styrofoam with an upholstery needle because my floral wire was too thin to pierce the styrofoam on it’s own, and the needle helped it along.

Then I dabbed a small amount of hot glue onto the end of my “stem” and stuck it into the styrofoam where I had made the hole.

I worked my way around the ball alternating between ivory and white flowers, doing my best to keep it random looking.

Once the styrofoam was completely covered I cut a 30″ piece of ivory grosgrain ribbon and tied it around my fishing line as close to the styrofoam ball as I could without squishing my flowers. And tied it in a bow.

TOTAL COST:

tissue paper – $1.80 pack x 8 = $14.40

ribbon – $1.50 spool (with 50% coupon) x 3 = $4.50

styrofoam balls – $2.50 2pk (with 50% coupon) x 10 = $25

floral wire – $2

TOTAL – $45.90 ( $2.30 each )

I thanked my lucky stars when I came across a Michaels coupon on my Michaels app for “50% off all styrofoam” so I was able to buy all of my 20 balls plus some more items for my centerpieces, all at half off! Derek, my mom, and I woke up super early on a Sunday morning to be the first ones inside Michaels, and we pretty much bought their entire supply of styrofoam. It was totally worth it because that stuff is very pricy! I’m still in the process of making the rest of the pomanders, but my centerpieces have been my main priority  these days which use the same method but with 1,500 flowers. Literally. So that’s what I’ve been working on all summer along with my helpers [thanks Mom, Lauren, and Derek!].

We’re having our first couples shower this weekend in Houston and we’re really excited to see some of our friends and family. It’s going to be crazy busy though, and it’s already jam packed full of wedding errands. That’s what happens when my mom and I are in the same city!