Paper Peony Bouquet

As part of the gallery wall I curated for our little lady’s nursery, I knew I wanted to incorporate something flowery. Either real or fake. And when I found the perfect mercury glass candle holder/vase, I knew exactly what to do. Recreate some peony-style flowers from pink tissue paper that I shared on Instagram over a year and a half ago.

Most of you don’t know how much I LOVE to recycle. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. is my motto. I’ll go out of my way to make sure something gets recycled. I’m pretty sure I’ve even brought back plastic bottles in my suitcase to be recycled before. And that’s where the main ingredient (tissue paper) for this project comes in. I saved every last piece of tissue paper from a baby shower my aunt and my mom’s sweet friends threw for me a few weeks back.

My sisters, mom and I at the shower. 🙂

Some paper was in bad shape and was tossed into the recycle bin. But some looked just fine to be reused for another present or upcycled into paper flowers!

Since there was so much pink (which I don’t mind!), I had plenty to choose from.

To create each flower, you’ll need 6 pieces of paper cut into 7″ squares. I mixed up the different shades of pink paper within each of the 3 flowers I was making to give it the color variation of real flowers.

Then I took each stack separately and folded it 1 inch at a time, accordion style.

Next I got out this random wire I’ve had in my craft closet for a while. Not even sure what it’s called.

I wrapped it around the middle of each flower-in-progress and left several inches of wire before cutting it. Then I cut dog ears on the ends of each fold like so.

Now it’s time to start fluffing it out to look like a flower!

With the 2 pieces in the middle, I delicately curled them in on themselves, again, to more closely replicate a real flower.

Slowly pulling the sheets of tissue paper apart one at a time, and voila I had a flower!

Repeat again and again and I had a bouquet! If 3 flowers can be considered a bouquet…

I wrapped the excess wire from each flower together to create the stems. And then flattened the stems to create a base that sits perfectly inside the mercury glass.

The vase shares a shelf with a Madame Alexander doll as part of the gallery wall. I think they compliment each other well! And I just love the subtle pinkness of the used tissue paper. Guess I have my baby shower guests to thank for their perfect choice in wrapping!

Such a quick and easy project to work on while watching your favorite TV show! Comment below to let me know what color you’d make your paper flowers in!

Thanks for Checking In! ~ Chelsea