Paper Peonies

One thing I love about Chinese New Year are all the beautiful flowers that accompany it. Today we're focusing on one of my favorites : the peony. Given to loved ones during Chinese New Year the peony symbolizes of love and affection. Since we're having a bit of a drought over here, and I feel a wee bit guilty purchasing flowers at the moment, we're getting super fancy and making paper peonies of our own to decorate our classroom and home.




materials:
yellow/pink/red tissue paper
pipe cleaners or heavy gauge wire
scissors

get to work:
1. Cut four - six 1 inch pieces of tissue paper into the tear drop shaped petals. Make a scalloped shape along the wide end of the petal.

2. Continue step one making about four more pieces, only these will be slightly smaller than 1".

3. Repeat step two, this time make four more pieces slightly smaller than those in step two.

4. Taking the largest pieces first, gently push the pipe cleaner through the narrow end of the petals and fan them out.

5. Next add the other two sizes, fanning them out as well.

6. Wind up any remaining pipe cleaner that's sticking through the flowers to secure the petals on.

7. Gently squish the flower petals until you have a desired shape for your peony.