Ava’s birthday is quickly approaching and this soon-to-be 4 year old loves all things princess. Naturally, her birthday theme is “Disney Princess” and I have to admit, I’m having a ton of fun with this theme. We bought a few decorations from Party City, but I LOVE making homemade ones. First up are Disney princess paper pom poms! If you’ve never made a paper pom pom, they are super easy and very festive additions to any party decor. Plus, they are cheap to make! Always a plus when you tend to go overboard with decorations like I do 🙂 Head to your local dollar store and grab some tissue paper, a ball of string/twine/thin ribbon, and a pair of scissors. That’s all you need!

The first step in making a tissue paper pom pom is to layer 7 pieces of tissue paper. This will give you a full pom pom without making it too difficult to separate the layers. Cut the tissue paper into 12″ x 12″ squares (can make larger or smaller depending on what finished size you want). Starting at one end, make accordion folds every inch.

After folding, round off the ends. This will give you a scalloped look to the finished pom pom. Tie a piece of string around the middle, keeping the tissue paper flat, and cut off excess string. **If you are planning to hang a pom pom, leave the string long!** I cut the string because my pom pom is going to be flat on one side and “stand” like a dress.

Flip the folded paper on it’s side (so it looks like a fan) and gently pull the layers of tissue paper apart, using your fingers to work the tissue from the middle out. If you pull on the outer edge, the tissue will rip, so it’s best to work the layers open from the middle. Since our finished product is going to stand like a dress, all the layers will be pulled to one side ~ don’t worry about making it even like a ball.

Now that you have the “dress” portion, it’s time to find the rest of the princess! A simple Google search with give you lots of princess poses. Decide which you like best and print on heavy card stock paper (or regular computer paper and glue onto card stock for stability). Remember, you only need half of the body since we just made the bottom of the dress out of tissue paper.

Using a glue stick, apply a strip of glue along the bottom back of the princess body. Find the middle of the pom pom and glue the princess to the tissue paper. Fluff the tissue paper to look like a dress. Voila! Disney princess tissue paper pom poms! These will look super cute sitting on the food tables.