Confession: I've never attempted to make Martha Stewart's tissue poms.  I've written about tissue poms as affordable wedding decorations, included them on inspiration boards, and swooned over them online, but I just haven't had a need to make them...until now.

For my birthday last month, I decided to throw a good old fashioned birthday party-- the kind any kid would be proud of. Bring on the bright colors, the birthday banners, the balloons-- I wanted it all...on a budget of course! So I decided to take my own advice and try my hand at making the poms.

The verdict? Best idea ever, Martha. The poms were so pretty, I had a blast making them and they were super easy and very inexpensive to make. Definitely a winning combination!

I followed Martha Stewart's instructions here, but to prove that a regular not-so-crafty Jane can do it, here are my instructions with the photos of each step above:

1. Fold the tissue paper like you are making a fan. I played around with sizes and different colors, and I liked to have 10-12 sheets depending on the thickness of the paper.
   
2. Wrap a piece of thin wire (I used floral wire) around the middle. I also added a little loop on the wire for hanging purposes. 
3. Cut the edges to make them round or pointy.
   
4. Gently pull each layer of tissue paper up towards the middle (think flower petal). This is the fun part!! I loved the "fluffing". 
5. And that's it! You have your pretty pom that you can use for all kinds of wedding or shower decorations. I even made a Pinterest board with my favorite uses of tissue poms- check it out!

To hang these, you can use the wire loop in the middle, or these are really light enough to hang with ribbon and tape.

And of course I have to include the budget for the project:
- Tissue paper: Purchased packs of tissue paper during after-Christmas sales 30 sheets for 75¢ (so that was 25¢ per pom for me).
- Floral Wire: You can get this for about $1.50 with a 50% off coupon at a craft store- for 150 feet, which will make so many poms.

So the total cost for each pom would end up being about 30¢ each if you can get the tissue paper on sale. You'll still have to buy ribbon or string to hang them, but this is such an amazing price for a beautiful wedding detail!