Even though humankind has managed to fake fur, faux flowers are still very much hit or miss.

They come in a range of tacky shapes and sizes — and the few, tolerable facsimiles come at a stiff price.

Fortunately, false flora has never been so convincing or affordable than with this charming cherry blossom light tutorial from Christine Nast.

Dollar store materials and a bit of tissue paper prowess are all that's required for this truly pretty take on fake.

Materials:

• white LED Christmas lights (battery powered)
• a branch/flowers (dollar store)
• floral stem wrap tape (brown)
• tissue paper (shades of white,pink)
• scissors/rotary cutting tool/pliers
• sand/gravel or small stones
• twist ties
• vase
• glue

Cherry blossom light how-to

1. 1. Prune plastic branch and wrap/attach lights with twist ties.
2. 2. Pour rocks into vase, hiding battery pack.
3. 3. Cut 3x3-inch squares of layered tissue paper.
4. 4. Fold the paper in half. Then fold the half-square into a cone, lining up the edges.
5. 5. Cut a rounded half circle to make the blossom.
6. 6. Glue the four layers of tissue paper together at the centre.
7. 7. Poke hole in centre of flower and tape it over light.
8. 8. (Optional) Detach fake flower stamen and glue on light (#9,#10). You can also diffuse the LED lights with glue.
9. 9. Ruffle the tissue paper flowers and cover the stem and lights with floral stem wrap.