{time to celebrate...5:30am spin and Tutorial Tuesday...on a Wednesday}

Y'all...let's celebrate.  Oh, you want to know why?  Because I survived my VERY FIRST spin class.  AND, it was at 5:30 this morning.  Oh yes, you read that correctly.  5:30am.  AND it was a whole hour long.  AND, I didn't even cry or throw up (but I wanted to...).  Today marks a victory for Team Health.  Check back in tomorrow to see if I can still walk.  :)

So now, on to {Tutorial Tuesday, but it's on a Wednesday this week because of Memorial Day...or something like that}

This week we're making tissue paper flower embellishments.  These days, it seems like babies are everywhere. In our Bible class, basically every young married couple has a baby.  And with babies, of course, come baby showers!  Many of the ladies in my class already have one or more children so we often have diapers & wipes showers instead of the traditional clothes/toys/bottles showers.  Let me tell you--most of the gift bags that are big enough to fit packages of diapers in them are just not cute.  And if they are, they cost more than I want to spend (I'd rather get more presents than spend that money on a gift bag!)  So I decided to jazz up a plain bag with a little tissue paper.  It's super simple and it would also be a great way to make plain white boxes from the dollar store a little fancier, too.

{for a bag big enough to hold diapers}

For the tutorial, I'm going to do a miniature version.

{for almost any other gift that's not ginormous}

This is so easy, anyone can do it.  Let's get started.

Step 1:  Get your supplies together.  You'll need:
(1) a bag or box
(2) some tissue paper {I used 3 colors that all came in a package together in the dollar section at Target--this is also a great way to use old scraps of tissue paper that you have on hand, even tissue paper that's already crumpled up!}
(3) brads or a stapler and a button to glue on top {I got the brads in the wedding section at Michael's, but you can easily use the little brass ones you can get at the office supply store}.

Step 2: Cut your tissue paper into squares.  This is easiest done by folding and cutting along the fold lines.  It doesn't have to be perfect since you'll end up crumpling it all up anyway.  I made my squares almost the same width as the bag I was putting the flower on.

Step 3:  Stack your tissue paper squares--they should be off-center from each other so that the corners don't overlap.  I used two squares of the darkest color, two squares of the lightest color and one square of the pattern.  You can use any combination you want, though.  Part of the fun is figuring out the best combinations!

Step 4:  Stick your brad through the middle or just staple the sheets right through the middle.

Step 5:  Stick your brad through the bag/box and press the arms down.  {This step can be switched with Step 6 if you think it would be easier to scrunch prior to sticking.  Either way works fine.}  If you have stapled the tissue paper squares rather than using a brad, you can just use a little hot glue to attach the paper to the bag.  Just use a little dab right in the middle of the back.

Step 6:  Scrunch!  Scrunch the paper together until you get the desired level of scrunchiness.  :)  Scrunch the top layer a little more and the bottom layer a little less so that the back layer can show through.  To make this easier, you can always cut the top tissue paper square a little smaller than the back two layers.

And you're done!  If you used a staple rather than a decorative brad, you can hot glue a little button in the middle so the staple doesn't show.

Good luck!  Let me know if you try it out!