TueDuesday: Decorate with Paper Flowers

What's Cinco de Mayo without colorful decorations? (It's celebrated at home. Somberly. With a great deal of tequila and plenty of Corona. At least in this house. Take that, virus!)

Kidding! It's also a wonderful excuse for an arts and crafts project. (Like almost every other day on my personal calendar.) So today, let's shake off the coronavirus and crack a Corona as we decorate our homes with paper flowers!

This particular TueDuesday is extra simple, in case you've already started on the margaritas. (No judgement.) Let's get right to it: you need...

* Colorful Tissue Paper

* Pipe Cleaners

* Scissors

Technically, you could substitute ribbon for the pipe cleaners (paper flower garland!) or cellophane for the tissue paper (waterproof "paper" flowers!), but I'll leave further innovations up to you. Whatever you do, take lots of photos and tag me in them (@LeahKBlewett on Twit + Insta) so that I can share your brilliant improvements to my basic-AF TueDuesday.

Let's get started!

1. Fold 1 sheet of tissue paper in half, then in half again to create a square. (If it's a bit rectangular, don't despair. This isn't origami.)

2. Use scissors to cut along the folds, opening them up. When you're done, you should have four smaller square(ish) pieces for tissue paper, stacked on top of one another.

3. Fold the paper in an accordion pattern.

(3a. Yes, we're going Full Disney with the gifs today.)

4. Wrap a pipe cleaner around the center of the accordion, and twist to secure.

5. Cut the ends of the tissue paper accordion on both of the short ends. Different cuts will create different shaped petals! Try pointy / fringed for carnations, rounded for peonies...etc.

6. Carefully separate each piece of tissue paper, and fluff them as needed.

7. Enjoy your beautiful flowers! Put them in vases in the front window or on the dining room table. Decorate your work-from-home office. Make a rainbow for the neighborhood kids to find. And send me photos! I'd love to see all of your Paper Gardens.