Tissue Flowers

I'm always looking for little ways to "green" our household a little more (both ecologically and economically).  One of my favorite tricks is to make tissue paper flowers.  There are a ton of tutorials on the web, and they are so easy to make.  

Once I got the hang of making them, I started using them for all sorts of things.  Every time we host a birthday party or some other celebration, we make flowers in colors that coordinate with the theme of the party.  These flowers were the table "centerpieces" for Kelsey's 13th birthday party.  Instead of buying balloons, we just hung up more flowers.  

I've also stopped buying bows and just tape on a tissue flower instead.  They make any package look so much more festive and cheery!

I love to make giant flowers!  It's kind of difficult to tell from the photo, but I used full sheets of tissue to make this large flower.  We hung this one up outside during another birthday celebration.  

The best part is that these flowers are free!  I just save all of the tissue that we get from presents and gifts throughout the year, and now we have a rainbow of colors to choose from.  The wrinkles in the tissue aren't really noticeable, and if any, just give the flowers more texture.