Orchids are beautiful and graceful flowers that bring style and elegance to any bouquet. Orchids are extremely hard to care for and very expensive to buy, which tends to make wedding planners change their minds about the style of the bouquet they want. This shouldn’t happen because making beautiful orchids is easier than buying them. Creating tissue paper orchids is both economical and earth-friendly. The tissue paper orchids can be used for the centerpieces for tables at a wedding reception or the bouquet decorations along the seating at the wedding.
The orchids are incredibly easy to make from tissue or crepe paper and can be made to any size, color, or type. You don’t have to worry about the not being able to find the exact type or color of flower you want for your wedding decorations because you can easily make them. They look stylish and can be taken home by the guests without worrying about the cost. The time spent making the flowers is good girl talk time for the bride-to-be and her bridesmaids.
The making of tissue or crepe paper flowers is so easy many preschool children can do it.
Materials
- Colored tissue paper or Crepe paper
- Scissors
- Craft wire or colored pipe cleaners
- Wire cutters
- Green painted skewer sticks or green pipe cleaners
Make the Orchid Flower
First you cut the tissue or crepe paper into 3 by 3 inch squares. Sometimes 3 by 4 will work, depending upon the style. Use multiple colors if you desire but always have a lighter color square and a darker color square for the orchid’s natural contrasts.
Fold the paper in a style like an accordion. To do this, fold a quarter inch of one end of the paper back, then fold the folded quarter inch and the section of paper under it in the other direction. Fold the entire square back and forth like that until the whole paper looks like an accordion.
Take a piece of wire and cut it to about an inch in length.
Put the wire one inch from the top of the accordion folded paper. Tie the wire so that the two ends of the wire are the same length. You are going to use this wire to tie the flower to the pipe cleaner or skewer stem.
Grab the section of the folded paper that is longer than the other. Cut the paper into three thin strips and fold them apart so that there is one section in the front and one on each side. Spread out the middle section a little bit. This is now your orchid. Fluff the petals in whatever way you like. Keep making these until you have enough to make bouquets for the tables, aisle or for whatever you desire to use them.
Finish the Orchid Bouquet
You can spray them with hairspray if you want to keep them exactly the way they are, but remember hairspray can get heavy and ruin the paper and it is very flammable.
Tie the newly made orchid flowers to the tops of either the green pipe cleaners,green skewers or floral wire. You have made an orchid bouquet. You can make other flowers like roses or poppies or daises and carnations to go with your orchids with any left over tissue paper.
A. L. Fetherlin - Author of "Brynn, the Exorcist" and former day care teacher who uses her home as an experiment in woodworking and building projects.
