Hi y’all.
This week as part of bloggin’ for Pigeon Vision I put together a little “how to” on making ‘poofs’ and thought I might upload it here again for those of you who missed it and wanted to get crafty. Enjoy!
Below is my step by step guide for how to get started making your own cloud, fort ceiling, or what I like to call, poof. These are quite simple to make and can be used to overwhelming wonder on multiple occasions-weddings, baby showers, fancy birthdays, non-fancy birthdays, traveling to the moon-the options here really are only limited to how you imagine it. These little guys were the base for how I made ceiling of the fort project many of you visited at the studio this summer. The amount I made, called for 865 pieces of tissue paper, and produced hundreds of poofs. By the end, I was a machine. I could make three almost every ten minutes. Some might say I went pro. When the fort came down, I carefully peeled every poof off of the ceiling and have started to give them a second life which you will see at a later date. But back to the task at hand, lets get poofing.
HOW TO MAKE A POOF: A DIY SPECTACULAR
I have made a visual guide and will outline in detail the play by play. Do not worry if you are not making grade A poofs right off the bat. It takes a little practice learning how to manipulate the tissue paper without pulling it apart or crumpling it up.
WHAT YOU NEED:
TISSUE PAPER: run wild! whatever color or multiple colors that you want! If you plan on making a large amount of poofs I recommend you buy in bulk off of amazon. It is the cheapest you will find. UNUSED tissue paper works best.
SCISSORS: really any kind will do, just make sure they work
FISHING LINE: you don’t have to use fishing line, but I like it because it is cheap, it seems never ending and most importantly you can’t see it so the poof looks like it is floating. Plus, it holds pretty well.
STEP ONE: Depending upon what size of tissue paper you buy, you will most likely want to cut the sheets in half. The smaller the sheets, the more realistic and full your poof will look. I recommend five to six sheets of tissue paper per poof. So, count out five to six sheets and cut them in half.
STEP TWO: Once you cut the sheets in half make sure to get them mostly lined up so they are in a semi neat pile. This way you won’t be making things harder for yourself down the line.
STEP THREE: Working on the longest width of the tissue paper stack, fold the paper back and forth, accordion style, in about half an inch to one inch increments until you have done so for the whole length of the tissue paper. If you come to the end and you have a little left over that isn’t the size of the rest of the folds, don’t sweat it, just fold it all together anyway. The size of the folding (half inch to an inch) is really up to you. The picture will give you a good ratio to go off of. But if they are not exactly the right measurement don’t worry, it’s only important that they for the most part are equal to themselves and-MOST IMPORTANTLY, are folded ACCORDION STYLE. If you fold them in on themselves they won’t open up and fan out when they become a poof.
STEP FOUR: In case you wanted an example of what the folding should look like at the end of step three pictured is my finished accordion style fold job. Now gather that up, to a closed accordion.
STEP FIVE: Now that your accordion is closed, you hold each end and cut the end into a shape. I prefer a rounded shape, but you can make it into a point, or get crafty, it will make your poof a bit different in the end. Make sure not to cut off too much, only what is necessary on each side.
STEP SIX & STEP SIX CLOSE UP: Now that the edges are cut, and the accordion is gathered you want to take your string and tie the tissue paper together at the center. Try to get it as close to the center as you can eyeball. Be sure to double knot your knot and tie it firmly together-not so much so that the tissue paper bows, but enough to know there isn’t any wiggle room.
STEP SEVEN: (These next few steps are the harder steps, and the ones you might have to practice to get right.) Hold your poof at one end and then at the other end slowly begin to pull the folds apart from each other. It is best to work from the outmost piece of tissue paper into the center. You want to do the majority of pulling the pieces of tissue paper apart towards the center of the poof (or the middle part where the tie is holding everything together)-that way the tissue paper has less of a chance to rip. So nudge the pieces apart from each other at the top and then gently pull the pieces apart with your fingers towards the bottom or middle most part of the poof. As you pull the pieces apart you also want to fan the paper out with your fingers from the center of the poof up to the tip, this will extend your poof to be as full as it possibly can be.
STEP EIGHT: Repeat step seven on each side of the top of the poof alternating between sides until you have fanned out each one.
STEP NINE: You will then have to repeat steps seven and eight on the other side of the poof (the side you were holding with your non-poofing hand) This might be tricky with little to hold on to. I recommend you work on your lap.
STEP TEN: The pictured poof is about half way finished getting fanned out. Once you have fanned it out you can adjust how close the tissue paper is to each other to make it more even and round.
CONGRATULATIONS! You have officially made your very first poof.
I am proud of you.
Now go make some more.
