Decorate & Craft With Florals

Inside Floral Ideas

• Hot glue silk flowers to Small Grass Brooms and finish with a raffia bow.
• Take a silk rose apart and reassemble it on the outside of a glass container for a votive candle. Using hot glue attach the rose petals working around and down until the surface is covered like a rose. Finish with a leaf.
• Hot glue silk flowers to Straw Wreaths and embellish with seasonal picks (Fall fruits, Christmas ornaments, Valentine hearts, or Easter Eggs.)
• In the Spring and Summer a hat can be a fun substitute for the traditional front door wreath. Hot glue silk flowers in the same fashion to a Straw Hats and add a hanger.
• Using glue or wooden floral picks attach dried roses to a styrofoam ball and hang with a pretty ribbon as a kissing ball.
• Hang a swag over a round or oval mirror.
• Use an 18" Grapevine Wreath as a base - add berries, flowers, silk flowers, and ribbon to this natural wreath and hang on your front doot to welcome guests. Or hang one indoors over a bed or fireplace.

• Pour warm Wonder Water into a vase or container, insert a pre-arranged floral design and let stand until the liquid solidifies back into a gel holding the arrangement in place. Easy instructions and project ideas included with the Wonder Water Clear Floral Arranging Gel. The flowers then look like they are in water. Imagine a Silk Water Lily arrangement - how dramatic.
• Imagine a living centerpiece with edible herbs, flowers, succulents, or greens.
  Ingredients:
  Wire frame 12 inches in diameter
  Sheet Moss
  
  Floral pins
  A sharp knife
  Spool of thin florist wire
  Small plants
  Procedure:
  Mix, match and plant: Herbs, Flowers, or Succulents.
  Cover the wire with the moss, making sure it is packed loosely into the frame and soak it. Secure the moss with the floral wire and cut slits in the wreath to insert the plants keepiong soil and root balls intact. Arrange plants decoratively and secure with floral pins as needed. Keep misted.
• Cover styrofoam spheres with sheet moss or feathers and arrange them in a wooden bowl for an earthy centerpiece.
  
• 

  Tangerine Bubble Bowl This beautiful clear glass
  bubble bowl holds fresh Tangerines and
  beautiful flowers in coordinating hues - Spray
  Roses, Asters, Geranium, Carnations, and more. Imagine
  a similar arrangement
  with lemons and daisies, or cranberries and roses.

Painted Florals

• Flowering Furniture
• Donna Dewberry's Botanicals
• Rusty Flower Candle Box
• Luminous Lillies
• Textured Pansy

Unexpected Containers

• For Flower Bowls:
  Use oasis in a child's dump truck for a floral arrangement.
  Take some CD's that come free in the mail and scatter with bud vases
  Float a flower in a wine glass
• For Flower Pots:
  Line your containers with black plastic and gravel to protect the container and allow drainage then let your imagination go.
  Plant teacups with ivy or miniature roses.
  Plant a football helmet with mums. Plant anything in baskets or how about a hat turned upside down? Perhaps a discarded cowboy boot for a masculine look, Or a high heel or purse for a feminine look. Line a wine glass with moss, and plant miniature roses with trailing ivy. Use a fish bowl as a terrarium.
• For Silk Flowers:
  Imagine a purse filled with complimentary silks, a lace handkerchief and some pearls.
  Use an empty dusting powder box for an arrangement.
• For a Centerpiece:
  A goldfish bowl complete with a fish would be equally at home for a Golden Wedding Anniversary or with soup and crackers (Goldfish of course).
  Fill a vase with balloons on skewers with curling ribbon cascading down the container and over the table for a big display.
  

  Beta Vase
  From the time I first saw this in a friends house I knew I had to have one as well. Apparently it's the latest craze - Feng Shui for the kitchen - War and Peace. The war is the Siamese Fighting Fish (male Betta) and the Peace is the Peace Lily. My friend has had hers for months with no ill effects. When you think about it, they’re perfect for each other because the fish lives in the roots of the plant and reduces the algae in the water although the fish do need to eat - very little. in nature the Betta lives in shallow rice paddies and swamps. However those waters represent a complete ecological system, which cannot be replicated in a small vase The setup consists of a large vase with some marbles in the bottom, a peace lily plant, and a betta. Quite often buyers of a Betta in a Vase have been mistakenly told that the betta can live by eating the lily roots but the betta should be fed. Betta like warm temperatures.
  Tetra's BettaMin Floating Flake Food and Delecta Freeze Dried Blood Worms are both available in most pet stores. Bettas are not an active fish, so they don't require as much oxygen or as much food as more active fish do. Be careful not to feed your Bettas more than they can eat. Remove uneaten food with a small net after 10 minutes. The marriage of these two elements creates a lovely arrangement that has caused a stir in plant lovers felt nationwide. A houseplant whose exposed roots live in clear water in a clear vase, along with a breathtakingly beautiful, lone, way cool fish. The Betta will nibble the roots, but cannot live from them alone. The plant tolerates roots in water, but is not normally most prolific there. Very simply: Keep it clean, don't add fertilizer, but do feed the fish. Should you decide to build one with us, remember to:
  - Provide regular fish food.
  - Place the vase out of direct sunlight.
  - Don't add another fish.
  - Change out half of the water at least once a week
  - Use only chlorine-free water, and always at room temperature. Distilled water is good, but tap water that has been allowed to sit for 24 hours should be suitable. To begin construction, I used:
  - a Peace Plant
  - glass marbles
  - a clear glass vase
  - a clear plastic cup
  - scissors
  - chlorine-free water at room temperature
  - a Betta (Siamese fighting) fish
  

  1. I bought the vase and got it ready on day one allowing the water to sit at room temperature.
  2. Carefully place the marbles in the bottom of the vase
  3. Unpot the Peace Lily and wash all the soil from the roots. This is an important but time consuming step. Trim the roots so that they are half as long as the vase.
  4. Cut a hole in the cup so that the roots can fit through without the plant falling into the vase. The water level should be just below where the stems and roots meet.
  5. On day 2 I brought my fish home. Take the plant out temporarily. The fish arrived in a sealed plastic bag which I allowed to float in the vase for a while so he became acclimated to the temperature. After 20 minutes I opened the bag and welcomed him to his new home - replacing the plant back into the vase.

Outside Floral Ideas

• See our page of Garden Crafts

Links

• Canadian Academy of Floral Art Portfolio Samples
• Floral Arrangementts with step by step instructions