Tissue Paper Turkey

Total Time Needed:: 1 Hour

Proud as he may appear, this gobbler is simply folded paper held together with pipe cleaners. Assemble one ahead of time to use as a centerpiece, then provide extra supplies so your guests can make their own.

Materials

Tissue paper (see color and size details in instructions)
Pipe cleaners

Paper clips
Tape

Instructions

TAIL:

Stack 8 sheets of tissue paper as follows:

2 red, 20 by 13 inches

2 orange, 20 by 11 1/2 inches

2 yellow, 20 by 10 inches

2 brown, 20 by 8 1/2 inches

Fold the stack accordion style, as shown, creating a strip roughly 1 1/4 inches wide.
Wrap a pipe cleaner around the center of the folded sheets.
Fold up the ends and connect them with a paper clip.
BODY:

Stack 13 sheets of tissue paper as follows, centering the smaller colored sheets between the larger brown ones:

2 brown, 10 by 26 inches

3 orange, 10 by 13 inches

3 red, 10 by 13 inches

3 orange, 10 by 13 inches

2 brown, 10 by 26 inches

Fold the stack accordion style, creating a 1 1/4-inch strip.
Wrap a pipe cleaner around the center of the folded sheets.
Working one side at a time, gently pull up and separate the sheets to form the body.
HEAD:

7 Fold a 13- by 20-inch sheet of red tissue paper lengthwise. Twist together 2 pipe cleaners, crimp one end of the wires around the sheet (see below), then loosely wrap the sheet around the wires.
Wrap a second sheet around the first and secure it with tape. Bend the paper into a head shape.
ASSEMBLY:

Twist together the 3 sets of pipe cleaners underneath the turkey as shown, leaving enough slack to let the tail and head stand upright.