First Come Flowers

You Can Make What Out of Foliage? Part 2 Amazing Green Animals

Topiary animals all dressed in green. Take a look at this emerald menagerie of leafy animals.

 

scfestivalofflowers

 

Steve Manning

 

wn.com

 

small world

 

swns

 

What kind of topiary animal would you like to see?

Mimi 

10 Hints That Your DIY Wedding Flower Plan Might Be In Big Trouble

Wedding flowers are big business for floral designers. I get it. You believe you can do it cheaper and maybe even better. Maybe you can. But if you're planning to do your own fresh flowers, I 'd like you to keep these 10 things in mind:

bridalbuds

10 Hints Your DIY Wedding  Flower Plan Might Be In Trouble

1) No one planning to assemble the flowers has ever done it before. Bridal flowers must be perfect. They can look like they were just picked from a field, but you will regret it if they look amateur. Get someone who knows how to do it to help.

2) No one knows how long the selected flowers will last. Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers. But if you make a bouquet of them for an outdoor wedding on the hottest day of the year you will be holding a wilted bunch of stems and ribbon.

3) You have specific colors you want to use to match the bridal party dresses. If you're planning to buy your flowers from a wholesale flower market try to order them beforehand. So you know they will have what you want. Better still, pick the flowers before you select the dresses.

 

weddingbee

4) You don't have a cool place to store the flowers. See if you can find someone who does. Or pick  up the flowers the day before from the wholesaler.

5) You have not attended a class or done extensive research on  DIY wedding flowers. It's really not as easy as it seems. You want the flowers to look beautiful for the pictures. There's a reason people hire professionals. Don't let the stress of trying to get the flowers just right steal your joy on the days leading up to your wedding. Take a course.

6) You haven't practiced making the flower arrangements before the wedding. Step away from this computer screen and start practicing right now. 

honeybeeflowers

7) You've selected a complex bridal bouquet, because it's the one you've been dreaming of. Either choose another bouquet style or consider having a florist just make your bouquet. It will take the pressure off. A round bouquet may be easy to do, but a cascading one is a lot of work and technique. You can make a simple bouquet if you use one type of flower in one color.  

 8) You don't know how to take care of flowers. You can read up on this online.

9) You plan to dye your flowers to get the color just right. Don't even think about it. Nuff said.

10) You're planning to make an extremely unusual bridal bouquet with fish heads and purple sequins. That might be your style now. But in 20 years you will live to regret it when you look at those wedding pictures. Need proof? Check out the wedding pictures of people married in the '80s. They weren't even trying to be avant garde. 

 

weddingbee

Here are a few websites to help you be successful with your DIY flowers. There are loads of them. Find one that meets your needs.

DIY Wedding Resources:

Style Me Pretty

The Knot

Big Wedding Tiny Budget

100 Layer Cake

Bridal Buds

Video Tutorials

If you take these hints into consideration, your DIY flowers should turn out fine.

Have a story about someone who did their own wedding flowers? I'd love to hear about it.

Mimi

 

Learn How To Make 25 Valentines Day Wreaths

Learn how to make 25 Valentines Day wreaths yourself.  Here are tutorials for making wreaths from both fresh materials such as flowers and 22 wreaths from things you probably have around your house.

Martha Stewart

1) Velvety Flower Wreath - This beautiful heart-shaped wreath is made from cockscomb. It's out of season here in the northeast, but I couldn't resist including it.  Learn how to make it here.

 

The Magic Onions

2) Mossy Wreath - Here's a moss covered wreath great for many kinds of celebrations. Learn to make it here.

 

 

 
Martha Stewart

3) Carnation Wreath- This beautiful carnation wreath can be made in just about any color.  Here's the tutorial.

Idea Room

Learn how to make 22 different types of Valentines Day Wreaths over at the  blog, Tip Junkie.

 

What kinds of wreaths have you made?

Mimi

 

Linking to:

2805

At The Picket Fence

Beyond the Picket Fence

Chic On A Shoestring

Common Ground

Elizabeth and Co.

Home Is Where My Story Begins

No Minamalist Here

Not So Functional Housewife

Primp

 

Stuff and Nonsense

The Charm of Home

French Country  Cottage

 

 

How To Make Vintage Inspired Holiday Decor

Vintage Style Window Display 

I didn't realize that birds were so in this year for Christmas until I stopped by Jamaili. It's a floral and event supply store in the flower district here in New York City.

Nearly every ornament in there was a bird. Glittered birds to be exact. There were small birds. Large birds, bird lights, I think, and even bird garland.

So I guess the Christmas tree here at the shop is quite on trend. I don't particularly care for that term, but sometimes it's best to just go with the lingo.

Vintage Swan Planter

I bought this vintage swan planter from a local thrift shop for $5.99. It was chipped, but I think it adds to its charm. I filled it with pine boughs and holiday ornaments. 

Swan in Fly Me To The Moon Florists  Window

If you read this blog regularly, this isn't the first or last time you''ll see this swan.

You can achieve a similar look with an urn or a different type of planter. 

  

Christmas Tree at  Fly Me To The Moon Florists

 

Red Birds in Golden Nests

I found these red birds, cardinals I think,at a local discount store.They were 2 for a dollar.

My lovely sister, Susan, was kind enough to make these golden nests from strips of paper. Aren't they beautiful? She applied glue to the strips of paper and formed them into the shape of nests. Then let them dry completely. She spray painted them gold and they were done.

I bought the golden french horn from an outlet store in the neighborhood. 

 

Holiday Arrangement in Vintage Style Cone 

Vintage Style Cone

I made this cone. Well actually, I covered a plastic cemetery vase with brown kraft paper. Then embellished it with a  tea-stained colored piece of cardstockI made into a medallion.  I glued the red and gold medallions on top of the other one. I believe there was a button or a tiny glittered circle on top of that, but it appears to have disappeared. 

I then filled the cone half way with water. Inserted selected holiday greens, red foliage and filler and that thick beige stuff that used to be green amaranthus. I really love the way it turned out.

The cone arrangement is attached to the top of an 8ft. rusty iron obelisk- shaped shelving unit I found on the street. It weighs a ton.

It  stands  proudly in the nook right outside of Fly Me To The Moon Florists. We don't have to worry about anyone taking it though, because they can't move it either. 

Golden Pumpkin with Glittered Pine and Pine Cone 

Golden Pumpkin

I confess. This pumpkin was left over from Halloween. A simple coat of gold spray paint and embellishments turned it into this beauty. My business partner's triplet sons think it's just weird. You decide.

 

Christmas Tree at Fly Me To The Moon Florists 

 

Christmas Tree

It's not easy taking a picture of a shop window without getting a reflection. We just got a DSLR camera which my business partner promises will change everything. We'll see. 

Here's what's on the tree:

• Red birds in and out of nests
• Dollar store ornaments I embellished with medallions, vintage buttons, etc. which I couldn't get decent pictures of.
• Enormous gold french horns with red cord. Of course they're too big, but I like a bit of whimsy in my displays.
• Glittered gold and red pine cones
• Non-blinking  clear lights

 

Holiday Window Fly Me To The Moon Florists

There are a few other holiday vignettes around the shop, but the lighting didn't allow me to get presentable pictures of them. 

Hope you enjoyed our holidiay window display.  

What would you have added to this vintage inspired window display? 

Mimi

 

 

Linking to:

No Minimalist Here

Common Ground

Primp

My Romantic Home

The Charm of Home

2805

Stuff and Nonsense

At The Picket Fence

French Country Cottage

Chic On A Shoestring

How to Make 5 Kinds of Paper Flowers

I came across these paper flower tutorials this morning. I needed ideas for decorating a gigantic hutch at Fly Me To The Moon Florists. 

I did a 4 part series on making paper flowers here.  It was so popular that I thought you might enjoy the paper flower tutorials below. 

 

Image:   A Place for Us

Brown Paper Flowers- I'm making some of these bad boys for the shop. If they turn out well I'll share a picture of them.

 

Image:   Jones Design Co.   

Rolled Paper Flowers - There's a simple tutorial for making these rolled paper flowers here.

Image:   Made By Nicole

Scrunched Paper Flowers - You may want to see how to make these paper flowers from old book pages here.

 

Image:   Martha Stewart

Crepe Paper Flowers - Learn how to make different types of crepe paper flowers here.

 

Image:   Greedy for Color

 

Tissue and Tulle Paper Flowers - Here's a tutorial for making these unusual tissue and tulle paper flowers.

 

Would you ever use paper flowers to decorate a special event instead of real ones? I'd love to know what you think.

Mimi

 

31 Days of Orange: Day 30 Dessert Table Decor

 

Orange Dessert Table Decor

Love those orange paper fans! Look like pumpkins, but more sophisticated.

 

How else could these paper fans be used in a tablescape?

Mimi

Image:   Amy Atlas Events

Fake Flower Follow-up

 

After completing the series, "Flowers and Gift Wrapping" a couple of other things came to mind. So I wrote this post so I could tell you about them.

In case you missed it, our 4 Part series, "Flowers and Gift Wrapping" begins here with "How to Gift Wrap Elegantly."

 

Fake Flower Tip:  Follow-up on "How To Fool People With Fake Flowers"

Flowers Not Available?

Let's say the flower you want to use for an arrangement is out of season or unavailable at a reasonable price. Buy a realistic fake flower and combine it with real flowers and foliage.

If you decide to use a few blue roses though, you're on your own. I can't help you. They will never look real.

Here's How:

Place the fake flowers into your arrangement where they won't be noticed right away.  If you do this well no one may ever know. Except me of course, but I promise not to tell.

 

 

Tutorial: Follow-up on "How To Make Flowers For Gift Wrapping

Want to learn how to make these beautiful rustic though elegant flowers and/or pillow?  Read Debbie's post, "A Tutorial: Pottery Barn Inspired Frenchy Pillow, on her blog Confessions of a Plate Addict.

That's it for now.  Let me know if I missed anything else.

Mimi 

Images:   This Next   Tutorial

 

Part 4: How To Make Flowers For Gift Wrapping

This is Part 4 of our series, "Flowers and Gift Wrapping."  You can read Part 1,  Part 2 and  Part 3 here.

 

How To Make Flowers For Gift Wrapping 

I hope you've been inspired to begin embellishing your gift packages with flowers. If you're a pro, I hope you've discovered some new techniques.

I've tried to give you as many links to how to make flower tutorials as I could. I'm sure I left some great ones out. My true passion is delighting people with real flowers at Fly Me To The Moon Florists. Now there, I leave nothing out!

So here are links to some flower-making tutorials. I hope you'll find helpful:

 

 Paper Flower Tutorials

Here's a link where you'll find 45 different paper flower tutorials  "How to Make Beautiful Paper Flowers"

 

Felt Flowers

 
Image: Mrspriss 

Here are links to felt flower tutorials: mrspriss   onelittleminute.com   sprinkledwithglitter

 

 Ribbon Flowers

 
Image: The White Bench

Here's a link to 17 ribbon flower tutorials:  Ribbon Flower Tutorials  and a video, "How to Make A Very Quick and Easy Ribbon Rose."

 

Hope you enjoyed this series, "Flowers and Gift Wrapping."

 

If you've got a little space you may want to set up a gift wrapping section in your home. I don't have the room. But I might incorporate a few of these ideas to keep my gift wrapping stuff under control.

Here's a great link from Kate of Centsational Girl blog for some wonderful ideas for storing your elegant gift wrapping supplies.

How have you been decorating your wrapped gifts?

 Mimi

 

Image:   Willow Bee Inspired    
                Gracefullady   Centsational Girl

Part 2: How To Gift Wrap Using Fresh Flowers

 

Gift Wrapping With Fresh Flowers

This is Part 2 of our series called, Flowers and Gift Wrapping. You may read Part 1 here.

 

How To Gift Wrap Using Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers can add an elegant touch to your gift wrapping.

But fresh flowers won't last too long without a source of water. It's best to cut and place the flower on your package shortly before giving it to the recipient.

Traveling for an hour on a hot day before you give the gift? Use a fake flower instead. Nobody wants a gift with a wilted flower on it!

Here are 2 ways to wrap a gift using fresh flowers without having them wilt before the gift has been given:

I    Use Flowers That Don't Wilt Quickly

Carnations, chrysanthemums and cymbidium orchids can last quite a while without water. If these fresh flowers have had the chance to drink lots of water before you place them on your gift, they'll still look great when you present the it.

II    Use Any Kind of Flowers In Water Tubes

Florists and floral departments in craft stores, often carry little green tubes that hold water for fresh flowers.

Fill the tube with water, but not all the way to the top. Cut your fresh flower on an angle and stick it in the tube. Do this over a sink or the water may spurt out on your gift.

I would use this technique for a gift that can stand upright rather than one lying down. The water tubes sometimes leak. You don't want to ruin your gift wrapping and/or your gift trying to make it look pretty. 

Add a piece of foliage to enhance the look of your flower if you like.

How to Cover The Water Tubes

You can cover the water tube with ribbon or use a bow with lots of loops to cover it. Play around with this until you get it right.

Wired ribbons make it easy to make a bow with lots of loops that will stay put. Here's a link to a video called, "How To Make Ribbon Loopy Bows" 

 

How Many Flowers Should You Use?

You can either add a single flower stem or a nosegay which is a small cluster of flowers.

Single Flower Stem on Gift Technique

Cut the fresh flower stem 4 inches long. That's probably too long. But it's better to cut it too long at first than too short. Then just stick it under the ribbon near the bow.

If the flower has a stem that is very short, like a cymbidium orchid you can either tie it or wire it to the ribbon near the bow.

You can cut a 6 inch piece of wire and stick it through the stem of the cymbidium orchid just under the bloom.  Twist the ends together a bit then wrap the ends around the ribbon to secure it to the package.

If you are totally lost with my directions or want to provide some water to your cymbidium orchids,  then check out this link for a tutorial on wiring cymbidium orchids.

 

 
  

Nosegay on Gift Technique

Collect a bunch of small fresh flowers such as: spray roses, pom poms, mini carnations, etc. and a bit of foliage.

Arrange the flowers in an attractive bunch to create a nosegay. Learn how to wrap the stems with wire, then green floral tape here. Cut the stems to an appropriate length and stick them under the ribbon. 

Now you know almost everything I know about wrapping gifts using fresh flowers. 

Read Part 3 of this series "How to Gift Wrap Using Fake Flowers" in our next post.   

Which fresh flowers would you use on a gift?

Mimi 

P.S. You can also use dried flowers on gifts.

 

Image:   Blue Hydrangea    Girl Inspired    Sunday In Bed    Holly Maus

Part 1: How To Gift Wrap Elegantly

 

Why Gift Wrap Elegantly?

 "We all know that wrapping a gift prettily is not a necessity. It is merely a small, but thoughtful, gesture that can add to someones enjoyment of a special occasion.

It's a chance to display a bit of our creativity as well. So relax, have some fun, and get pleasure out of your efforts - the nicest gift of all."     Carolyne Roehm    

 

I was inspired to write this series on Flowers and Gift Wrapping by a book written by Carolyne Roehm called, Presentations: A Passion for Gift Wrapping.

I've seen this book many times. But when I saw it at the library today something told me to borrow it. So I did. 

By the time I walked up the hill to the shop,  I had already outlined the blog series in my head.

 

Flowers and Gift Wrapping

Part 1    How To Gift Wrap Elegantly

Part 2    How to Gift Wrap Using Fresh Flowers

Part 3    How To Gift Wrap Using Fake Flowers 

Part 4:   How To Make Flowers for Gift Wrapping 

 

 How To Gift Wrap Elegantly

  
 
Containers - You can wrap your gifts in traditional gift boxes, hat boxes, decorative shopping bags, decorative containers or paper cones. The sky is truly the limit.

 
 
Paper - Select either plain or simple patterns (stripes for example) that can be used for many different occasions. You also want paper that can be used for males and females.

The paper above fits none of the criteria. But it is simple and elegant. Brown kraft paper, white, black and your favorite colors are a good start. You can even use newspaper to wrap your gifts. One of my favorites is that peachy colored N.Y. newspaper.

Some stores sell decorative wrapping paper by the sheet. You can also use scrapbooking paper for small items.

Generally speaking, the simpler the paper the more elegant the gift. You may quote me on that! LOL!

 
 
 Fabric - I've used scarves and pieces of unique fabric to wrap odd shaped items. The wrapping actually becomes part of the gift. This gift is wrapped in felt cut to look like a pocketbook. How clever!

  
 

Ribbon - When possible use real ribbon. I mean ribbon made out of fabric like satin, velvet, grosgrain etc. That satin acetate ribbon, that feels more like paper than ribbon, looks cheap and is hard to tie into a nice bow.

Buy real ribbon at fabric stores or craft stores. Michael's usually has spools of real ribbon at the front of the store for one dollar. Select colors and patterns that will go with your wrapping paper.

Buy ribbon that is between 7/8 of an inch wide - 1.5 inches wide or wider if you like. You can buy solids, stripes, polka dots, etc. 

Ribbon in natural and muted colors looks elegant. You can buy the neon pink for that special someone, but I wouldn't make it a habit if you want a sophisticated look.

 

Flowers - Fresh or nice fake flowers add a real touch of class to a gift. Parts 2 and 3 of this series will discuss how to incorporate flowers into your gift wrapping. To discover how to select realistic fake flowers read "How To Fool People With Fake Flowers" here.

 

Embellishments - You can add other little items to the outside of your gift such as miniature wooden spoons for a cookbook, beads, holiday ornaments, whatever you like. Just don't overdo it.

So these are the basics of elegant gift wrapping. Read Part 2: "How To Gift Wrap Using Fresh Flowers" 

It will discuss how to include fresh flowers in your gift wrapping for special or not so special occasions.

Here are a some nice gift wrapping blogs:

A Gift Wrapped Life

The Gifted Blog

Paper Source Blog

What was the most unusually wrapped gift you ever gave someone?

Mimi 

Image:   Heather Bullard   Absolutely White   Simplified Bee 

             Heart of Light   Houz.com

             Heather Bullard