In this second and final installment of my Shabby Chic Tea Party crafts series I’m going to go over a couple of easy tissue paper and painting crafts that will instantly add a lot of shabby chic charm to your decor.

Tissue Paper Flowers and Poms

Tissue Flowers and Poms are pretty simple to make. It’s a craft that I think they even teach in elementary school, that’s how easy this is. To make both, follow the instructions below:

1. Select your tissue pieces. The length of a sheet of tissue paper is a good starting point and depending on how wide you want your pom, trim it down. I believe for the pink pom above I used 20 inch x 20 inch tissue paper and cut it in half giving me 20 inch x 10 inch sheets. Next, layer about 8-10 sheets on top of each other. For flower poms, you wont need as many sheets, maybe 4 or 5 at most.

2. Next, accordion fold your sheets. Make the folds about one inch in size.

3. Gather up your folds and twist some wire around the center. If you’re making a flower, chenille stems (pipe cleaners) are good for this, because they will hold the paper together and also act as a flower stem. For the poms, make a hook or loop from the other end of the wire for hanging purposes. On the top and bottom, cut a rounded or pointed tip. This will make it look more rounded or flower-like once you open the layers.

4. Fan out the paper and carefully pull the layers apart. Take it slow or you might end up tearing your petals.

Painted Decor

Painted Crate

To paint a crate to look shabby chic, you’re going to want to either start with some old wood or if you buy a new crate, like I did, layer some colors on top of each other. If you start with old, darkened wood, paint on top of it with a soft pastel or white and when it’s dry, sand some of the paint off so that it looks worn and old.

For a new crate, or other wooden object, paint it in a base coat of some brown.

When that layer is dry, paint it with your top color. I chose a pretty turquoise color. Don’t worry about full coverage here. If some of the brown shows through, that will add to the worn effect.

When I was done painting the turquoise, I felt like it was a little too bright so I softened it up with a paint mixture of the turquoise and white. I sort of dry brushed it on so that it wouldn’t cover up too much of the original turquoise. Dry brushing is done with a dry brush and just a little paint on the tip. It creates a streaking effect and looks good for this craft.

The light top coat also gave the paint a sun bleached look that was great. The final step is to sand the edges and across the sides a little so that the brown shows through. The more the paint looks worn and chipped, the better. I even took a knife to it to chip some of the paint off. Distressing is your friend here.

Other Painted Decor

I would highly suggest thrift shopping for shabby chic party decor. If you can find items that you like, even if they don’t quite look right, they can always be painted. I found a set of metal napkin holders that, once painted (and sanded) looked great.

When I found this candelabra at a local Goodwill it had been sloppily painted a gold color. I loved the plastic crystals hanging off of it, so I grabbed it. A couple of spray painted coats of white later, the gold was gone, and it fit in with my color scheme.

Another thing I found at thrift stores were mason jars. You can also get them new if  you can’t find them used. I did a quick coat of spray paint on these babies too and then, once again, lightly sanded some of it off to look worn. I’m using these for flower vases.

If you get imaginative, you can use pretty much anything, and with the right paint job, it’ll look great at your shabby chic party.

I hope these techniques are easy for you to follow. If you have any questions about any of the instructions leave a comment below.

Coming soon, I’ll document my shabby chic tea party (it’s this weekend!) and share with you how it turned out and all the yummy food I made.

If you missed Part 1 of my shabby chic party decor tutorial click here.