flowers

 A girlfriend’s wedding is coming up and I’ve been racking my brain trying to think of what I should get her for the bridal shower as a gift. Of course she is registered somewhere, but the girl has everything and I wanted to get her something special. So- I decided to make flower crowns for the entire bridal party (which I am a part of) and do a hippie-chic photo shoot for her on the beach (it’s a destination wedding). I’m super excited about this gift, and while I’m not sure if the bride will be or not, I think it will make for amazing photos which she can cherish forever! (I’m only posting this because I’m  100% sure she doesn’t read my blog- and if for some reason she reads this- then sorry Mel, your surprise is ruined!) lol.

Today I’m gonna show y’all how to make one of these pups and give you a few pointers on what did and didn’t work for me. First, you’re going to want to come up with your color scheme. In my case, the bride really loves white, gold and neutrals, so for her crown I’m sticking to greenery and white blooms. For the bridesmaids I chose sunflowers (Mel’s favorite flower since we were little girls), and orange, purple and white flowers. I wanted something colorful because I thought it “pop” in the beach photos.

Step 1. Head to your local craft store, and get your flowers. I looked online and decided I actually wanted to see the flowers in person- silk flowers can vary in quality a lot and didn’t want to receive a huge order in the mail only to think they looked like crap. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A COUPON and/or that the floral department is having a sale. Michael’s and JO-Ann Fabric typically have a sale in the floral department at least twice a month. DO NOT buy these flowers full price- wait for the sale! I purchased mine at Jo-Ann Fabric and they were 30-40% off. I also had an additional 20% off coupon for my total purchase. I ended up spending $81 on all the supplies including flowers and wire, floral tape, flower cutters etc.  (My receipt said I saved $70 from the sale and coupon!) It pays to use a coupon gals!

Here are the supplies I purchased:

• floral wire cutters
• floral tape
• green floral wire with wire cutter (Grab one with the wire cutter on it, it makes it so much easier and cuts time, even if its just a little!)
• wired Sisal rope (this will be your base for the crown)
• You will also need a tailors measuring tape, and a hot glue gun (not pictured)
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Lay out all your supplies and your tools.

1. Use your tailors’ tape to measure the circumference of the crown of your head.  Mine measured 21.5″. Cut your wired rope about 2.5 inches longer than your measurement. (So I cut mine at 24″) You want this extra length because we are going to twist the ends together and they will over lap a little. Also, if you’re going to do bulkier flowers and greenery, it’s a good idea to leave a little extra room too, as the the bulk of the flowers will take up space around and inside the crown.

2. Take your sisal rope, and make an oval shape with the ends overlapping. Twist the ends together and secure with floral tape. See photo below.

1. Now you’ll start to add your greenery. (Get a good green base going before you add any flowers.) For the crown pictured in the next photo, I used vining greenery- which made it easier to fasten to the crown base. For other crowns, I used the leaves from the bouquets I bought, leaving a little bit of stem. Lay the end of your greenery next to the crown and begin to wrap around floral wire to secure the greenery. Wrap from one end to the other, being careful to go around leaves and not to fasten them down flat to the crown. Depending on which greenery you choose, your crown should look something like the photo below after you’ve wrapped it all the way around the crown.

 

 

1. Continue adding greenery until you feel you’re ready to add flowers. For this crown I bought some white vining flowers, which I felt looked nice against the greens.

If you’re wanting to add some larger flowers, this next crown will give you a better idea of what it might look like. As I mentioned, I chose some more colorful flowers for the bridesmaids.

For the greenery, I started with the leaves from the rose bouquet, and added some purple thinga-mabobs. (I think it’s supposed to be lavender?)

For these crowns, I added larger flowers and found it was harder to secure them with wire. So- I went on a 30 minute hunt for my hot glue gun and just decided to glue the larger blooms on. Also, as a side note- I should mention that I trimmed the purple and white blooms before I put them on the crown. The flowers were so big I thought it would look silly. Below you can see the two trimmed blooms on the left, vs the full size bloom on the right.

Here is what I ended up with:

Be sure to wrap floral tape around any areas where you might have loose wires! And here is what it looks like on:non

 

 

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results. It took me about an hour an 15 minutes to make this last one. I have a ton of left over supplies and will be able to make the bridesmaids crowns plus more to give as gifts and use for photos! I hope y’all enjoy crafting these as much as I did!

Toots! Kelli