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Tuesday, February 16, 2010

DIY: tissue paper pom poms pt. 1

Wanna know what I love?
Tissue paper.

Wanna know what I love even more than tissue paper?
Tissue paper formed into the shape of pom poms.


Infatuation. Love. Addiction. These words aren't strong enough to describe my feelings toward these colorful little bundles of joy. So when it came to choosing decor for our reception tent, the choice was obvious.

And thanks, once again, to the internet I found tons of information on these little pieces of joy. They're up for sale in several Etsy shops including PomLove and orangekisses for those brides who aren't as DIY inclined or who don't want the stress (trust me, I wish I wasn't so cheap and stubborn sometimes). But since I'm crazy, I've bookmarked about a million tutorials (some of my favorites include this one and the original one from Martha found here) on how to create them myself.

Easy peasy, I thought to myself. A couple hours, maximum. That's a last minute do-it-4-days-before-the-wedding kinda thing, right? Um, no. Wrong. So, very, very wrong. My first attempt at making these bad boys sent me into a fury of frustration.

Because, honestly, there's about 2 things I really need to get married: Mr. FP and tissue paper pom poms. So not having them simply wasn't an option, unfortunately for me and Mr. FP. Especially for Mr. FP, who spent hours encouraging me and trying to get me to believe that with a little practice, I could perfect the art. Poor boy. Anyway, turns out he was right (that's right, I said it) because after a lot, a lot, a lot of practice, my attempts are slowly improving, as you can see from the photos of my trial runs which are now hanging in our bedroom (ignore the lopsided one in the last photo, it needs to be fluffed).





I don't know if it's just me, but this project does not seem like it's for the faint of heart. Once I realized I wanted a variety of sizes (personally, I find the ones from Martha are too big for our purposes) it was even more challenging because I had to figure out the ratio of tissue paper height and width in order to maintain the proper shape (trust me on this one, I had some funny looking shapes when I tried to change the dimensions). Fortunately, Mr. FP is a math genius and he made me a math formula so I can fill in whatever height I want to get the proper width to maintain the shape. That's right, my man makes me wedding-related math formulas. It's romantic, okay?!

In spite of all the stress, it will be worth it. And although it takes 4-8 sheets of paper per pom (which translates into... um, a lot to decorate a wedding tent) it can be done pretty cheaply if you get the majority of the tissue paper from the dollar store.

The only real dilemma after catching onto the learning curve of this DIY project? Deciding between poms and my other love, paper lanterns. For the life of me, I could not decide. And after months of me bugging Mr. FP with "pom poms or paper lanterns?" I finally realized... um, we can have both. Duh. So now, we're going for a look more like the photo below except for the fact that we're going with color pom poms and keeping the lanterns in white.


So now, the hard part is behind us.

Oh, wait. No it's not.
Now I actually have to make 6 trillion tissue paper pom poms.

Crap.

10 comments:

E. said...

This is a brideshare project for sure! Put up a request on brideshare or even just the blog for somebody who lives nearby to come help you and then they can use them for their wedding as well. Half the work + you make a new friend!

Giovanna said...

that's fantastic! i second the brideshare project. i wish i could do that...love it.

a little black cloud in a dress said...

what a neat idea!! good luck!

east side bride said...

I vote paper lanterns.

Miss C said...

Awww, loving the romantic math formula. How sweet. And useful.

I do not pity you having to make all of those, but you'll definitely perfect it after the first milion or so ;)

Bee @ BP Wedding said...

I love tissue poms!! I plan on making some for my wedding too. :)

bed frames said...

These are beautiful pom poms! I like the colors and the fluffyness.

Anonymous said...

would you be willing to share the size formula :)? Itd be awesome!

Amber said...

Can you share the secret formula with us? I want to make three pom poms for my friend who is pregnant and wants to decorate her nursery with the lovely pink tissue paper balls. I wanted to make three different sizes.

miss fancy pants (the bride) said...

@ Amber, since you're one of many to ask about the formula I decided to make a new post about the pom pom making process including the formula, you can find it on the front page. Thanks for asking!

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