Poufy Pretty

I love decorating for holidays, but the 4th of July has always been hard for me. Everything is a little too cheesy...but I wanted color! So I whipped up three cute wallflowers with help from Made. I love how they turned out! Here's some steps to mine.

For a blue pouf..

step one: I didn't have any blue tissue paper or napkins on hand, so I grabbed my handy dandy Azure Chartpak (available at art stores and Hobby Lobby) and went to work on eight 20"x30" tissue paper pieces, which is the standard size. I didn't worry about the stripes being even; they look better freehand anyway!

step two: Patiently fold accordian style up from the bottom, about 1" to an 1 1/2". Your tissue should be tall rather than wide.

step three: Wrap a thin floral wire around the middle a few times to secure. Trim the two ends like a pointed flower tip.

step four: Unfold to make a two sided fan.

step five: Starting with the top layer and working your way in, gently pull the layers upward. My first layer was pretty much vertical so don't worry about doing it too much.

step six: fluff and enjoy! You can just do it so that it sits on a flat surface, or pull apart the bottom layers to create a full hanging pouf.

Now, onto a red pouf which uses napkins like Made! Napkins are amazing for these because they are so sturdy but they still look soft and lovely.

step one: Unfold and layer 4 napkins. Mine started out as 5"x5" christmas napkins from the Michaels $1 bins! Add one large and flattened cupcake liner to top.

step two: fold accordian style upward every 3/4" to an 1" wide. And don't mind my scary finger vein! Wow.

step three: Wrap middle with floral wire. Trim ends to make a soft wave.

step four: Peel apart layers, making sure to pull each of the two or three layers apart that your napkin has. Extra fluff!

For the first pouf on our door I used four 6"x6" pieces of blue striped tissue paper, one red striped napkin and a cupcake liner. Layering is the way to go with these for sure! It's so fun to see all the different ways you can combine them. I think I'm officially addicted to wallflowers.

So how do you decorate? Are you a simple decorator, or do you go all out even for smaller events like the 4th?

linked up at The Shabby Nest