Forever Flowers

Making something out of paper that looks life-like always impresses kids. And with this craft, they can impress mom by making her a bouquet of flowers she can keep forever. By using vibrant colors of tissue paper, a pipe cleaner, and a little handiwork, kids can fold and create some beautiful blooms to keep spring in the house all year round.

What You Need:

• Tissue paper in many different colors
• Scissors
• Pipe cleaners
• Ribbon

What to Do:

1. Take each sheet of tissue paper, and open it up to its full size.
2. If they are large sheets of tissue, help your child cut the sheets to the desired size. A good size for a sheet is 5" x 7". Be sure to keep the tissue cut in a rectangular shape.
3. Let your child decide how she wants the pattern of the flower to look—does she want three red petals, then three yellow petals, then three white petals? Or one red, one yellow, one white? Encourage her to come up with her own unique patterns. Once your child has decided how she wants it to look, lay the pieces of tissue paper on top of each other in that order.
4. With the longest side in front of her, let her fold the stack of tissue in an accordion style as if folding a paper fan. She may need some assistance with this step as she will have to crease the paper firmly and lift the entire stack to make every additional fold. Keep the folds the same size, about one to two inches thick.
5. When the folds are complete and the tissue looks like a one inch thick rectangle, find its center and wrap the pipe cleaner around it.
6. Help your child peel one layer of tissue up towards the center. Do this very carefully so as not to rip your flower. Peel from one side, then the other side, and back and forth until the tissue paper starts to resemble a beautiful flower.
7. For an added touch, take a piece of thin ribbon and tie it around the pipe cleaner to help hold it in place.

You'll never have to get store bought flowers again once the kids master this technique!