Martha Stewart Crafts Vintage Girl Tissue Paper Flowers

When I summon my chi, I can be a fairly crafty and handy person. However, no amount of chi summoning could prepare me for the time and effort this little kit of flowers takes. The colors are lovely, the kit came with all the parts, but the instructions aren't particularly clear. You have to divide up the sheets of tissue paper to make all the sets of flowers. For instance, you get enough paper for 3 big and 6 small of the dahlia-type flowers, however, you are given piles of the paper you have to divide up yourself. Doesn't sound like a big deal, but separating those thin sheets of paper is quite a task! Thankfully, the dahlia's are easy- those you can whip out in 30 minutes or so (and don't bother wrapping the wires in floral tape). The flowers with the little Styrofoam balls in the middle are IMPOSSIBLE! You are supposed to fan the petals around the ball, but they flop all over the place. These little guys take a long, long time...and prepare to lose at least one to it being shredding into several pieces as you attempt to "fan" the petals. The cupped flowers aren't too bad. The directions say to use 12 of the little white stamens, but there are only enough for about 7 per flower (the materials make 9 total cup flowers).If you're looking for a quick project to give you some cute flowers for napkin rings or party accents, you'll get the cute flowers but not quickly...

I love crafting, but this one took forever! Be prepared to spend several hours on this project, although the end result is very pretty. Some things that annoyed me:1. The colors on the picture are not the exact same colors that you'll receive (the colors that come with the kit are mostly pastels).2. Be prepared to pull your hair out trying to do the flower kinds that are shaped like petals.3. Vague directions. (But full picture tutorials are available on her website for 2 of the flowers)But with that being said, they're very pretty and if you enjoy crafting it's something fun to do. Also, if you measure the dimensions of the tissue paper and keep the directions, you can recreate these flowers in different colors. They were simple and look very charming, but these may be a little too difficult for children.

It's difficult to overstate how bad the directions for this kit are. The price could be justified if there were competent directions printed in full color but the directions are neither. You get a couple of steps for each flower type and they barely give you an idea of how to actually create the flowers. This might be OK if this craft is the sort of thing that you do all of the time but if you are like me and expect something that walks a newcomer through the proper steps then this is a complete ripoff. Also, if you do this all of the time then I'm sure you would be far better off going to a craft store to just buy the materials there.You are given some pre-cut tissue paper, a few foam balls, some florist tape, some green paper wrapped wire and a couple of pages of awful directions all packaged in a plastic bag... the whole thing is probably worth 25 cents in material costs...On the plus side, the flowers can be quite beautiful but the whole thing shouldn't cost more than $5.00 in my opinion.

The review that said the instructions were detailed is a liar! They dont tell you much at all and are little help.Two of the three flowers were pretty easy to do but one of them is next to impossible. The instructions dont tell you how much tissue to use for each flower, not that its hard to figure out but it could give you more instruction on assembling them. It does come with plenty of materials though and the flowers we were able to make were very pretty. I am a usually very crafty and I have tons of patience (other wise I would have given up) so I did eventually finish all of the flowers, although the third most difficult flower doesnt look much like the ones in the picture. This is not for children of beginners at all.

While the end results look great, getting there was a challenge. The instructions leave a lot out, so there was a lot of experimentation necessary and the first few flowers took a really long time. For the most part, they don't tell you how much material to use for each flower, and on the occasions they did, the amount provided didn't match. I ended up with lots of extra tissue paper "petals" and didn't have enough of everything else--stems, stamens, etc.--to create the number of flowers it indicated. Not the end of the world, but it kind of defeats the convenience of buying a craft kit.

I ordered this kit to try out paper flower making. Parts were all there and instructions were not to hard to follow. However, the florist wire was way too thin, flowers just flopped over. The florist tape did not stick, perhaps it is old. Also the tissue paper for the flower petals was too thin & limp, and tore easily. That being said, I got what I was looking for. I was hoping to start a new hobby and this gave me the hands on experience to try more ornate flowers with my own supplies.

I have a friend who likes to do crafts with her 5 year old daughter, so I thought they would enjoy this kit. I have not seen it myself, so I can not comment on the quality. It seemed a litle expensive just for tissue paper and instructions, but I was in a rush. I hope to see the finished product when I visit them. I can say that it was fast shipping.

My 7 year old daughter and I had tried to craft with another paper flower set:  Alex My Giant Paper Flowers Kit  and had had little success. We decided to give a kit another go and I went with this, as it had the Martha Stewart name.The tissue papers were pre-cut, and the kit included floral wire and tape as well as detailed instructions. We were able to make the entire kit in about 45 minutes working together, and the flowers we made looked just as lovely as the ones in the product picture!I did have to help my daughter "fluff" the flowers, but she quickly caught onto the idea. This was a wonderful set, and looks beautiful when done!

great package