DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Thanksgiving Tissue Paper Flowers and Juice Jar Vase

I've given directions for making the flowers and for making the vase.  You don't have to do them both... you can make some flowers and put them in a store bought vase or you can make the vase and put in some silk flowers.

There are 4 different types of flowers you can make.
 

Materials for the Vase:

• juice jar (750 ml)
• paper mache paste (1 part flour to 5 parts water... boil about 3 minutes and let cool)
  +
  strips of white paper.
   
• paint or markers to decorate (we used orange paint for ours)

Materials for one flower:

• tissue paper
  - Orange, Red, Yellow of brown for flowers (any combination of fall colors)
  - bit of white or yellow for the center
• straw,
• cotton ball,
• scissors,
• scotch tape (or floral tape).
   

Directions for making the vase:

• Paper mache the jar (cover with 2 layers newspaper with one layer white paper over top of that) or just cover with 3 layers of white paper.
   
• Let dry (takes about a day for the paper mache to dry)

• decorate the jar with paint or markers.  We painted ours orange.

Directions for making a flower:

• cut a square of tissue paper about 2" by 2".
   
• put a small piece of cotton (about 1/4 of a cotton ball) in the center.

• scrunch the cotton filled tissue paper around the end of the straw and wrap a piece of scotch tape around it
   

• Put 4 or 5 petals around the cotton filled tissue paper.  Tape them on.
   
• Continue adding rows of petals until you have a nice full flower.  You'll need at least 4 rows of them.
   
• Fluff the petals out a bit to shape your flower.
   
• Optional:  spritz a bit of perfume on your flower to scent it.
   

heart shaped petal template

(I think it looks like a rose or peony flower -- this is my favorite)

large pointed petal template

(I think this one looks like a water lily)

small pointed petal template

(this has twice the petals of the others... 40 to 60 petals in a flower)

tri-petal template