I’ve made these awesome DIY tissue paper rose symbols for a couple events now. They are so easy and the materials are totally affordable – they just take a little time to put together (and a love for hot glue)! Here’s a simple how-to article.
Materials Needed FOR DIY TISSUE PAPER ROSE SYMBOLS
- Tissue paper
- Cardboard/poster board
- Hot glue gun and glue sticks
- Tape
- Wooden dowels (if necessary)
- Brooch back safety pins (if necessary)
Steps
1) Sketch out the numbers/letters/symbols that you want to create and cut them out. They can be fairly imperfect but try to make sure the overall shape is good. For my “2015”, I made each number half of a sheet of posterboard. My “40” was larger and made from cardboard.
2) Create a bunch of tissue paper roses. I like to rip the tissue paper into wide strips, then grab an end between my thumb and pointer finger and wrap the tail of the tissue paper around messily. Sometimes I need to fluff the rose up a little, then I put a small piece of tape on the back to hold it temporarily.
I usually make a bunch of these, then move on to the next step, coming back to make more as needed. I like to have a few different sizes for best fit as I put it together. Honestly, even if the roses are imperfect the final product ends up looking great.
3) Heat up the hot glue gun and start gluing! I work from one end of the symbol, tucking the roses in tightly for a perfect fit. You can randomize colours, do all one colour, or add splashes of a different colour. I’ve taken different approaches and it always turns out well.
4) When the numbers are all filled in with roses, you’re set! If you made the backing out of cardboard, it’s probably solid enough on its own. If you made it out of posterboard as I did here, you might want to attach some dowels or popsicle sticks to the back to make sure there is enough support. I just hot glued some small dowels to the back this time.
5) Attach brooch back safety pins with hot glue if needed. I did so for this set because I am pinning them up on a photo backdrop.
And that’s it! Don’t they look great?
These specific numbers looked great at a graduation party I decorated for, but the above steps are easy to customize for New Year’s Eve, or for a birthday party as well. You could even do initials or a name for a guest of honour. Numbers aren’t the only way to go!
Have fun with your DIY tissue paper project!
Cheers,
KG
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