Poms - The Great Time Suck!

Today's project was creating the first aisle decoration - a sample tissue paper pomander.  I was duly warned that these little gems would take hours to create however I was unprepared for just how long it really would take.  Let me tell you, they aren't kidding when they say 3-4 hours for each one.  I assume it will go slightly faster as I get better at it but not significantly.

First of all, I have to give a shout out to a Wedding Bee who provided the instructions on her blog:  DIY Wedding Blog.  I used it as an outline for my creations.

I started out by cutting my tissue paper as indicated and then began folding.  I discovered that it's not an exact science and was able to do the final folds more quickly because of that.  I used wrapping paper tissue as that was the only kind available at my local craft store.  It meant that I had to fight with the existing folders, which was a little bit of a pain.  It was fine once the pom folds were in place and the floral wire attached.

I would recommend using a lighter weight floral wire.  I used a pretty stiff package on this one and will seek out lighter for future ones.  It works fine however it was a little hard to bend and twist.  I felt like my flowers were a little harder to "fluff" because of it.  My first attempt at fluffing was terrible however by the end I think I had gotten the hang of it.

 I also may cut less rounded tops on the next set of flowers.  It appears that the example had a slightly more pointed tip than mine.  As with all DIY projects, experimentation is key!

The picture to the left is only 3 flowers.  I ended up using a 3" Styrofoam ball as 4" was too large for our purposes.  I would estimate it took between 10-12 flowers to fill the ball.  I packed it fairly tightly and you could definitely use less.  This picture was on the 4" ball and before I decided I want to pack the flowers more tightly.

All in all, the project took about 3.5 hours and 2 trips to the craft store to finish up one pomander.  While I am pleased with the outcome, I'm not looking forward to several more Saturdays spent on this project.  Luckily I have two wonderful friends who have offered to help one of those days.  I need one more green and 5 each of black and white.  If the next green one comes out better, I may just use this as a sample. I'm only kind of a perfectionist! ;)