How to Make Poinsettia Flowers out of Crepe Paper Streamers

After searching the web and not finding what I wanted, I came up with these cute flowers made of crepe paper streamers.  These flowers are very easy to make and are a great way to use up streamers left over from  birthday parties.  Make one with the kids for a present topper, or make lots of them with stems and give a bouquet to Grandma.

Materials:

1 sheet card stock

12 ft. piece of crepe paper streamer 

Scissors

White glue

For a flower with a stem:  Green Pipe cleaner or wire florist stem, 

OR

For a present topper w/o stem:  wire or bag tie

1)  Fold a piece of card stock horizontally (hamburger, not hot dog, as my kids would say)

2) Hold up vertically, and starting from the top, wrap your streamer 8 full times around, so there are 8 layers 

in front and 8 in back of the card stock.  Wrap each layer over the top of the other, nice and neat.

3)  Slip the streamers off the cardstock.  Keep wrapped nicely.  Fold in half and make a hard crease.  Unfold.

4)  Cut each end of the folded streamer into a point.  Now you have 8 pieces cut in to points on each end.

5)  Crimp and twist each piece at the middle.

Only ten are shown, but you should have 16.

6)  Stack the pieces together, holding them in the middle.

7)  Secure with one end of a pipe cleaner or florist wire, twisted underneath if you would like your flower to have a stem.  If you want your flower for a present topper, etc, you can just secure it with a wire bag tie like I did or a short piece of wire.

8)  Now arrange the petals to look nice.  Don't worry, this step is way easy.

9)  Gather the scraps left from cutting the points and smoosh them into 6 balls the size of garden peas.

10)  Squirt some white glue onto each ball.

11)  With your fingers, smear the glue all over each ball.  Place the balls in the middle of your poinsettia and let dry.  That's it. 

So easy, a child could do it.  So what are you waiting for?  Get the kids and get started!