How To Make Honeycomb PomPoms

Posted on March 28, 2013 by MrP 23 Comments

Im seeing lovely honeycomb pom-poms floating around here and there and they make me happy! They seemed quite straight forward to make so I tried making them with some tissue papers I had. It turned out really well easy to make and quite satisfying, so Ive made this little tutorial for you. Its magical when you first open them up into a ball! You can use any thin paper you have and get creative with color combinations. Honeycomb pompoms can be used for party decorations, photo shoot backdrops for special days, mobiles or cheerful wall decoration for kids rooms. Theyre sure to lift your mood any day!

You need: tissue papers, glue stick (soft new one!), scrap paper, scissors, cardboard (thickness of cereal packets), needle and thread

HOW TO MAKE HONEYCOMB POM-POMS

1. First, decide what size pom-pom you want to make and cut a circle from cardboard. Cut the circle in half. Take multiple sheets of tissue paper and layer them on top of each other, now fold these in half to make double the layers, then fold in half again to create loads of layers. Now cut out a rectangular square thats comfortably bigger than the half circle, you want to end up with around 40-50 sheets. The number of layers you need varies depending on how dense you want to make your honeycomb but FYI, I made all of my pom-poms with 40 to 50 sheets.

2. Take one sheet of the tissue paper and place it on a larger piece of scrap paper. Now well need to divide the width of the tissue paper into a few equal sections by drawing marker lines in 2 alternating colors as in the photo. How close the lines are to each other determines the cell size of the honeycomb. I made the first one with roughly 1 3/4 inch (about 43mm) wide spacing and another one with about 1 1/4 inch (30mm) spacing and youll see the difference in result later in the photos. You dont actually have to measure accurately or follow these examples, just make sure the spacing lines are fairly even. It also doesnt matter if you have an odd or even number of lines, they just need to alternate like A-B-A-B- etc. and you need to clearly mark them with 2 different colors or other markings.

3. Pick a line in one color first, grab your glue stick and run vertically across the tissue paper as if connecting the lines. I found it easiest to hold one side of the tissue paper firmly and work from the middle to the edges. Hold your glue stick at an angle if necessary so the glue line is not too thick. Do the same for the rest of the lines in the same color. Youve finished your first layer!

4. Now place another sheet of tissue paper on top. Rub it well. Now choose the line in the other color and repeat the gluing procedure as before. Youll be gluing the lines in areas that were not glued on the previous sheet. Repeat this with the rest of the sheets of tissue paper. Take care to keep alternating your glue lines between each sheet. I changed the tissue paper color half way through for the pom-pom in the photo. For another pom-pom I changed the tissue paper every 4 sheets so it ended up with a stripe design.

5. When youre through all the remaining tissue papers, congrats you have your honeycomb paper! You can now cut it into any shape you like but here well use the half circle to make a pom-pom. Place your half circle on top and trace loosely around it.

6. Cut along the lines. Youll be cutting 40-50 sheets together so large scissors really help.

7. Glue the cardboard half circles on both sides of your honeycomb paper. Note: I used the full half circle at the beginning but it made the pom-pom a little heavy on one

side, so later I cut out the inside of the circle to reduce the weight and thats what it shows in this photo. Other photos show the full half circle. I also made the cardboard circle slightly smaller than the honeycomb paper so it hides well when finished.

8. Put a threaded needle through tight in the corner of your half circle.

9. Knot the thread but keep some slack, otherwise it wont open. Do the same on the other corner. You can leave the thread long on one end to hang up the pom-pom later.

10. Now after all this work this is the exciting and rewarding part! Hold the cardboard on both ends and pull apart slowly. Some parts that shouldnt be glued might have a little glue residue and not come apart straight away, just keep pulling gently and they should all separate cleanly.

Taa-daa! Simple pleasures : )

Glue the cardboard ends back to back to form a sphere. I just used looped masking tape so I can store them flat later.

Now, Ill show you the different pitches of the lines you drew at Step 3 and how this affects the size of the honeycomb cells and density of the pom-poms.

These 2 pom-poms in the photo are the ones with 1 3/4 between glue lines and are made of 40 sheets. The cells are big and wide open.

And this pink stripe pom-pom is made from the template with 1 1/3 between lines and made of 50 sheets. The cells are smaller and the pom-poms more dense looking.

Honeycomb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

I am particularly thrilled with this pop up card as I sort of invented it by trial and error.However my dearest critique who is my "nearly 5 "year old daughter is quite unimpressed with it.Her main criticism was its too white! The pop up mechanism in this card has a lot of possibilities and since its quite easy to do I am sharing it with everyone.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

Materials Required to make the Honeycomb Flower Pop Up Card

Paper Thin regular writing paper or executive bond paper - For the honeycomb Card Stock- for the card base Thin Card stock for the petals and leaf Scissors White Glue

Snowflake Punch[ optional]

How to Make a Honeycomb Flower Pop Up Card 1.Use a circle template to draw circles on paper of medium thickness. Here I have used my daughters stacking drum as template for the circle.The paper you chose is important. Too thin [like origami paper] and your honeycomb wont support your pop up flower card petals , too thick and it becomes difficult to fold all the circles.Here I have used regular A4 writing paper.Dont cut very small circles as making your honeycomb will be difficult in that case.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

2.Cut up 8-12 circles.The number of circles you need depends on the thickness and pliability of your paper.I will explain as we go along.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

3.Stack the circles on top of each other.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

4.Fold the stacked circles in half.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

4.Start applying glue.White glue is best as it dries invisible and is fast sticking.Only a dot of glue and right near the edge.I have indicated the site of the glue with the pink hearts as the photo could not capture the real glue dot!Fold over the circle above it on to the circle with the glue. Tip: Too much glue and too near the edge will spoil the honey comb creation so careful.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

5.On the next circle[ that is the one you have just folded over] apply glue on positions as shown.Fold the circle on the left on to this and apply glue on it as in step 4.Keep alternating step 4 and 5 till all the circles have been glued.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

6.Unfold your circles and voila here is your honeycomb!The Honeycomb has so many possibilities. Stick two or 3 similarly made honeycombs and you have a homemade decoration!In making a pop up card your honeycomb just needs to unfold enough to be a hemisphere . If it feels too taut add a couple more circles underneath as in step 5 and 6.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

7.Apply glue on the circle halves at the bottom of your honeycomb and stick it to the central fold of your card base. Apply firm pressure on closing the card and give enough time for it to stick.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

8.Cut out large petals .Here I have folded photo paper less than 100 grams and drawn half petals on the rough side of the folded photo paper.Photo paper has a nice glossy finish and looks good for white petals.Insert the petals into the lower layers of the Honeycomb .Experiment with the popping up position of the petals before gluing the petals to the honeycomb.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

9. Optional Step. Punch Snowflakes

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

10.Cut the snowflakes in half and insert them into the honeycomb layers.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

11.Cut out a large leaf. Here I have hand painted a leaf using pearl green acrylic paint.Glue the leaf to the undersurface of the flower and onto the base card.

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

Honey Comb Flower Pop Up Card Tutorial

Have fun. I have used the same pop up card honey comb mechanism in making a pop up snowman card

If you are on Pinterest you can "Pin" this tutorial by clicking this butt