Saturday 24 September 2011

Blooming Marvellous!–A Quick Tutorial

All that pinkness displayed on Wednesday morning was for this weekend’s wedding at Church.

DSCF2429Danielle and Luke are working on a very tight wedding budget and wanted to decorate the church in their chosen colours at minimal cost. I knew I had quite a few white and pink silk flowers in my box in the garage – some from Paul and Kathryn’s wedding – more than ten years ago – and others from the BWA Women’s Conference I organised in Birmingham in 2005.

Sometimes hoarding proves a very useful and thrifty habit! I said I could lend them those flowers, and just buy a reel of ribbon in the right shade of pink. I’ve managed to produce twenty pew-end arrangements, and a large display for the front. But there was one extra request – Danielle’s Gran cannot be at the wedding, and so I said I’d do a flower basket which could go to her after the ceremony.

I found a white basket in the garage, and decided to fill it with fresh white chrysanthemums and gypsophila – with some pink silk flowers as accents, along with a pink bow on the handle. But I had no pink silk flowers left!

Then I remembered a guy who was displaying flowers at the Sandringham Craft Fayre last year – making them from florist’s ribbon. So I had a play around with these things

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The blue tool, bottom right in photo, is a Ribbon Master, which came with a multipack of wrapping paper and ribbon about twenty five years ago! It has little teeth on one side of the hinge and you use it to shred ribbon.

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Cut two lengths of ribbon about 18cm and 24cm long.

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Shred the ribbon, leaving 1.5cm at each end unshreddedDSCF2450

Fold in half, but overlap the ends

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Wind this round a bbq skewer, and stick in place with florist’s adhesive tape. Repeat with the other length of shredded ribbon. Tidy up the stem with sticky paper ‘stem’ tape.

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Experiment with different lengths, and ‘fluff out’ the ‘petals’

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Continue till there is a whole bunch of them

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Then arrange the real white flowers in the basket, add some pink ‘accents’, and tie a bow on the handle

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And that will be part of the floral decoration in church for this afternoon’s wedding. All for less than £20!

btw – if you have some silk flowers which look rather dusty, hold them firmly upside down, and blast them with a hairdryer!

9 comments:

  1. Is there no end to your imagination? Clever lady, the 'flowers' look superb and I'm sure the Bride and Groom will be more than happy.

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  2. Beautiful! They are blessed to have you there. I'm sure Grandma will be thrilled with her basket.

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  3. I bet you've even been asked to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. You are amazing, Ang! The flowers are lovely and I'm sure the wedding was gorgeously pink because of your crafty hands!

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  4. That is beautiful. Now I'm on the look out for a Ribbon Master.

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  5. Clever clogs!
    I used to have one of those ribbon thingies too, still might have somewhere...
    Hope the wedding went well!

    Sandie xx

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  6. Do you think tha hairdryer thing works on those willow tree figures that you can't dust for fear of knocking yet another bloomin' gold ball/blue dove/outstretched hand off? I shall try this next time their turn comes! Have to agree with Pom.

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  7. I think you are a marvel. Bob is downright lucky to have you, and I know your church must think so, too! You go above and beyond the call of duty! ~Liz

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  8. Don't worry - I do realise just how blessed I am!

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  9. I really like that, you're very clever!!

    Gill in Canada,

    http://thatbritishwoman.blogspot.com

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