Early this year, we had a guest speaker at our school. I couldn’t recall his name but he claimed to be from India. He spoke in front of our 500 eager students, demonstrating a craft supposedly to be originated from, you guess it, India!

He used crepe papers and like magic, poof … turned them into beautiful colorful flowers. The whole process of producing a single flower is less than 5 minutes. A few completed flowers were presented to the students as souvenirs. Naturally, the children were bowled over.

Crepe papers offer stunning decoration opportunities. One can cut, glue, shape, fold, pleat, stretch – to name a few – and create flowers that look like real ones.

Beside to variety of flowers on stalks, the man showed how to make a long garland which a student proudly put around his neck. There were other ornaments, too!

The whole session took about half an hour. The children enjoyed themselves and were exposed to something new. It ended with a sale of discounted books on Indian Art and Crafts which generated lots of buyers.

A further search around the world wide web on “crepe paper decoration” steers me to pages after pages of lovely handiwork. I learned how easy it is to create something using crepe papers. Crepe papers are stretchable which makes it easier to form. The only downside of crepe papers is that it bleeds when wet and the color will fade and blot.