Floral Arrangement | HoneyBear Lane

Christmas Present Floral Arrangement by My Insanity

December 1, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 2 Comments

Kendra from My Insanity here today! I’m excited to be back at Honeybear Lane, especially to be able to help Heidi out so she can spend a little more time snuggling her new bundle of joy (and hopefully sleeping, too!)

Heidi and I share a love of flowers, so when she asked me to guest post, I immediately thought I might share another flower arrangement idea. We had previously swapped ideas for Valentines flower arrangements. And thought you might enjoys some ideas for beautifying your holiday season.

This could be used as a gift for your friends, or neighbors, or maybe you’ll want to keep it for your own Christmas dinner centerpiece. A few years back I made several small flower arrangements and took them around to our neighbors. That may seem like an expensive, gift, but can be done inexpensively if you get cheap containers (IKEA has vases for $2/ea and buy your flowers in bulk.

1. Here are the supplies for the present arrangement. I used a couple of bunches of mini-carnations. Mine were from Fresh & Easy. The two bunches I bought were $5/each and would have been enough for 2-3 arrangments. If you are making very many of these, you might look at some place like Costco for bigger bunches. I bought the gift box, vase, and package of gold plastic ornaments at the Dollar Store. In the supply picture I show floral wire, but ended up having a better result using bamboo skewers. In the botttom left, you’ll see a brick of floral oasis or WET floral foam. It is very important that you get WET foam and not DRY foam–unless you are working with artificial or dried flowers. You’ll also need a hot glue gun and glue.

2. If you do an arrangement in a clear vase, you’ll want to skip the foam. I like using foam in an arrangement like this, since the vase is covered by the gift box. It gives you a little more creative control, keeps things in place, and can help the flowers to last longer. If you are using floral foam. Cut a brick around the size of your vase and set it in a sink of clean water (you can add flower food to the water if you wish). Remember when working with floral foam, it’s best to let the foam soak up the water slowly. Do not submerge it completely in the water. When it sinks, it is full of water and ready to be used.

3. Fit the foam tightly into the vase. (Trim if necessary, or add an additional piece if it doesn’t fit snugly). Place the foam-filled vase inside the gift box.

What you do next, depends a little on how you want the arrangement to look. I didn’t want to use a ton of flowers, so I made sure I glued the gift box lid high on the corner of the box. I wanted it to look like Christmas is erupting from this gift box. If you wanted your arrangement to be a little more traditionally dome-shaped, glue the lid a bit lower down the side of the box. I just used hot-glue to attach it where I wanted and held it in place for a bit while it set.

Start adding your cut blooms one at a time. I concentrated the white carnations around the edges and the red and white ones a little higher. But you can place them however you like!

I had intended to add the Christmas balls to the arrangement using wire, but mine wasn’t working so well. A really thick gauge wire would work, but I found that sticking the end of half of a bamboo skewer into the ornament worked nicely. Then you can just stick the other end of the skewer into the foam to position it.

Just make sure the arrangement feels balanced as you add the flowers and balls.

In no time, you have a fun flower arrangement ready to grace your holiday table, or bring Christmas cheer to your friends.

If I had made a few of these, I would put the cost at about $7.50 each. You could cut costs, by using more greens and fewer blooms in your arrangement. Also buying your flowers in bulk will cut costs as well.

I’d love to have you come and check out more holiday insanity/ideas over on my blog!

Congrats and best wishes to Heidi and her family!

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Filed Under: Christmas, floral arrangement, flower arranging, guest post Tagged With: Christmas, craft, flowers

Thanksgiving Floral Arrangements: A Guest Post

October 28, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 3 Comments

Thanksgiving is the time of year to gather friends and loved ones around and reflect on all the blessings of the year. Of course, along with all of the good food and festivities beautiful flowers will set the mood and the table for a long leisurely meal. Thanksgiving is truly a holiday of peace and the celebration of daily work and the simple life. Hearts are turned toward home with a thankful heart, which in itself is a continual feast.

Incorporating home delivery flowers into the holiday is what makes Thanksgiving so special. Flowers represent and say much more with the intoxicating aroma and beautiful arrangements. Without saying words, flowers express the emotions felt so strongly by the giver. Autumn colors are in abundance during the season of Thanksgiving and flower deliveries make it possible to create lovely Thanksgiving floral arrangements. There are a few things to consider to bring the crisp fall autumn arrangement to the Thanksgiving table. Making a floral turkey thanksgiving centerpiece can make your holiday season complete just by following a few tips.

Floral Turkey Thanksgiving Centerpiece

The size of the table and guests should be taken into consideration. The flower arrangement should not be overwhelming to the point that the family cannot enjoy conversation. Usually, the rule of thumb is elbow on the table to the fingertip is the desired height. This can vary but will range from fifteen to sixteen inches. The nice thing about this arrangement is that it can be used year after year just by using home delivery flowers and a turkey ceramic soup tureen. There are many choices of tureens and many sizes. They come in many colors and can be the most formal turkey imaginable to a simple single color. Usually with all of the autumn colors the turkey tureen will be complimentary to any table cloth and napkins.

Fresh Flowers for a Fresh Dinner

It is possible to put the fresh flowers in fresh water and this gives the opportunity to replenish as the following days go by. The holiday arrangement will last a little longer with this method. The other alternative is to use floral foam. It is wise to prepare the work area with newspaper before beginning the harvest table project. There is a large assortment of fresh flowers from home delivery flowers to choose from. Spicy-hued fall colored stems create a harvest-inspired backdrop. Chrysanthemums or mums, as they are commonly called, are a very good choice because they are in the harvest season colors and really make a statement, even if placed in the soup tureen alone. Gerbera Daisies are an especially pretty accent flower in this particular arrangement.

Assembling the Turkey Floral Centerpiece

A serrated knife will be needed to cut the floral foam piece. Make sure it fits snugly into the turkey soup tureen. Remove the floral foam after the fitting and soak in the water until it is saturated. Replace the floral foam into the soup tureen. The tallest flower should be put in the center of the foam. At this point the other flowers will be placed lower than the focus point flower, continuing all the way around. Darker colors should be closer to the edge of the arrangement and move in with the lighter colors. The stems should be cut in succession and graduate down to shape the arrangement proportionately. The smaller flowers, Gerbera Daisies can fill in the gaps.

Experimenting is a Part of Creation

Don’t be afraid to experiment and rearrange if necessary. Various colors of fall leaves can be a very pretty accent by using floral pics and wrapping with floral wire. The other option for the centerpiece when not using the floral foam is to use the home delivery flowers alone with water in the tureen. The water can be changed every couple of days to ensure freshness for a longer period of time. Home delivery flowers are a wonderful way to make thanksgiving special for friends and family.

About the Author

Patricia Hall works part-time for a florist but loves to surround herself with flowers at any given point of time. Even in her free time she loves to involve herself with everything flora and fauna.
‘To me there is nothing more beautiful and global as the language of flowers – it is the easiest to understand all around the world in the same way. That is one reason why I truly admire flowers for what they represent in some ways – unity of all mankind!’

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Filed Under: floral arrangement, flower arranging, Thanksgiving Tagged With: Entertaining, flowers, Holiday, Home Decor, Thanksgiving

Make a Dramatic Centerpiece with Branches

July 29, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 1 Comment

I’ll show you how I did this branch buffet piece real quick…

We bought some curly willow at Tai Pan and collected some stray branches on the road side and sprayed them white. When you spray branches white, if you spray a little you will get a rustic weathered look. It takes a LOT of paint to get them perfectly white. So we went for the rustic look.

Then we had a large container so we found a smaller one to put plaster of paris in with the branches.

To make sure the branches all stayed spread out instead of falling over to the side, we made a tape grid on the container.

We put all the sticks in the middle four squares of the grid and poured in the plaster of paris. We let the overflow run over into the container so it would fill in any holes in the metal container (so we could fill it with flowers and water later.)

And you get your bff to help out and hold the sticks in place long enough for the Plaster of Paris to set up a little.

Then we let it sit for several more hours. To hold the inner container in place, we filled it in with rocks. After that I just put in some water and then added the flowers, white hydrangeas.

We draped pearly garland around the whole thing in cream and black. I found that in the Christmas Section of Hobby Lobby. We also strung some white crystals with fishing twine (which you can’t really see here) and got a few special pendants to bling it up even more.

The thing I love about this buffet piece is that it uses minimal flowers, which are pricey, but the sticks add height and drama and the garlands tied it into the theme of the wedding. I think it turned out awesome!

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Filed Under: floral arrangement, flower arranging, wedding

The Wedding

July 22, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 8 Comments

I have never been this tired.

(That beautiful girl is my bestie.)

Linking to:

Tip Junkie Tip Me Tuesday

I Heart Naptime

Flamingo Toes

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Filed Under: floral arrangement, flower arranging, wedding

Doing Your Own Wedding Flowers

July 19, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 4 Comments

Did you know I used to do wedding flowers? When I was first married I had a small business doing wedding flowers. I stopped doing it after I had my first baby and never really started up again. So when my friend asked me to do the wedding flowers for her brother’s wedding, I was super excited. But I didn’t have the same connections as I did before.

So here are some tips on doing wedding flowers without a florist.

For large amounts of flowers, order wholesale through the internet. For this wedding, we are ordering hydrangeas and white roses through Costco. Costco has great prices but a limited selection. Since it’s been awhile I can’t really recommend any of these sites based on personal experience, but they seem to have decent prices and a bigger selection: www.theflowerexchange.com, www.growersbox.com. Remember, these are wholesale flower sites so you will have to purchase a LOT of flowers to get the price.

For smaller amounts of flowers, try your local grocery store! They always have a small floral section which might have some great filler flowers. You don’t need a lot of these to go a long way.

For greens and possibly other flowers, ask your neighbors with beautiful flower gardens if they’d be willing to donate to the wedding. :) I’m raiding my mom’s garden for this wedding.

For floral supplies, you can find lots of items such as wire, floral tape, and floral foam at craft stores and even Wal-mart. Remember to get corsage pins too! For things like flower water picks you should ask a local florist if you can purchase some from them.

And don’t forget silk flowers! Silk flowers have really come a LONG way in the last several years and now you can find high quality silk flowers that look very realistic. They probably won’t be cheaper, but if you have a situation where you need the flowers to last for several days or perhaps two receptions, silk is a great alternative. Look for the best silks at Hobby Lobby (where they are nearly always 50% off), Michaels, and decor stores like Tai Pan Trading.

Betcha couldn’t guess these flowers are all silk!

This is the bouquet I made from all silk flowers. Most of them we found at Tai Pan Trading, but the hydrangeas we actually got from Walmart!

We bought the following flowers to make up this bouquet:

Hydrangeas
Green Roses
White Poppy
White Freesia
White Dahlia
Green Berries
Dark colored Hypericum Berries
Bear Grass

For the stems, I wrapped it in a striped black and white ribbon (you have to wrap at an angle so it lies flat) and then added an accent ribbon in the green. The bride had collected some brooches which we used here on the stems and actually inside the bouquet.

To make a bouquet, you start with your largest and bushiest flowers (the hydrangeas, dahlias, poppies, and roses) and form a little round bunch. Then you can add in the smaller stuff where you like, filling in gaps and adding on the edges. To make grass loops I used floral tape to hold the loops in place. I held the whole bouquet tightly in my hand until I got it how I liked. Then I started taping (with the floral tape) as close to the base of the flowers as possible. Then I taped a good distance down, how long I wanted the ‘handle’ of the bouquet to be. And then I wrapped it with the ribbons. Not too hard! Silk is easy to work with because you can bend the flowers to be the direction you want to be in.

Click here to see how this wedding turned out!

And click the button to see more DIY wedding ideas!

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Filed Under: floral arrangement, flower arranging, wedding

Blog Swap with My Insanity

February 8, 2011 By Heidi @ Honeybear Lane 4 Comments

Hi guys! I’m doing a blog swap today with Kendra from My Insanity! I hope that after you read Kendra’s awesome project you will come check mine out at her blog, My Insanity. Take it away, Kendra!!

Hi, everyone! My name is Kendra and I am often told that I am crazy, so I decided to embrace My Insanity and blog about all of those things that make me a little wacky–namely my creative endeavors. I love blogging because I meet lots of other insane kindred spirits.

I’m excited to be trading posts today with fabulous fellow Arizona blogger, Heidi! We’ve only met briefly IRL, but we have a lot of creative insanity in common! We found out that we both have experience working with flowers. I used to do them often for weddings. I did these arrangements for my sister-in-law’s wedding a year ago.

We thought that this would be a great time to share a few flower arranging techniques you might want to use for Valentine’s Day.

I made this fresh flower arrangement using wet floral foam, which is also called floral oasis. It’s actually pretty simple to use, and available in the floral section of most craft stores. You just really have to check the labels on the packaging because the dry foam only works with fake flowers, and they are both sold in packages of green blocks.

I decided I wanted to make a real flower arrangement similar the the fake one I made several years ago that is featured in my Valentine mantle design this year.

We all know that the price of roses becomes ridiculous right around Valentine’s Day, so I thought it would be fun to see what else we could use that would still look festive. I found these bunches of Alstromeria for around $4/bunch at my local grocery store. The roses were nearly $18 for a small bunch. That made my decision pretty easy. I wanted some variation, so I chose a darker reddish bunch and a lighter pink bunch.

I used this pretty ceramic heart dish as my base. It was the right shape and size. Then I just needed to cut the foam to fit inside the dish. I cut it into a rough square before soaking it and made the rest of the cuts afterward. When you get the foam wet, you fill a clean sink with cool water. The trick is to let the foam slowly absorb the water on it’s own. When it becomes entirely submerged, it is finished. Don’t push it under the water.

After it is wet, it is still pretty easy to cut, just stay near the sink, since it will drip. I trimmed and shaped the edges of the foam so that it would fit nicely into my dish. You can use lots of different containers. You just want the foam to fit snugly.

If you were going to use greenery in the arrangement, this would be the time to do it. Greens can disguise the foam and serve as a field for the rest of your flowers, but that wasn’t what I was going for here, so I knew I’d just need to position the flowers closely together. I used the darker flowers as kind of a border around the edges. Cut each stem pretty near the head. If the stems are too long you won’t be able to get the flowers in close enough.

Simply insert each stem all the way into the foam. Try not to do a ton of repositioning, as it becomes harder to get the stems to stay in if their are too many holes or they are too wide. I will say that alstromerias might not be the very best choice for a foam arrangement like this. I had to be careful with the delicate stems and flower heads. If you took the time to wire them, they might go in more easily. Roses and carnations work well, but we’ve already discussed the price point on those right now. You can use lots of different kinds of flowers, but the stronger the stem, the easier they will be to work with.

After going around the edges, I just filled in the rest of the shape with the lighter pink flowers. Again, cluster the flower heads tightly, so none of the foam shows through.

And this is what you get when you are finished.

I placed the heart dish on a red cake stand so it would make more of a statement.

Be aware that this type of arrangement (without greenery) will use more flowers than you think it will. This is a small arrangement and it took everyone of the heads of the two bunches I purchased. Several years ago, I made citrus colored kissing balls for my sister’s wedding. I had several bunches of carnations, but by the end of the evening, I was sending my dad to every grocery store in the area for any kind of flowers in the right colors to be able to finish the balls, since it took so many flowers for each ball.

The foam helps preserve the flowers, and they should last for several days. You can add water to the foam (carefully) if it is getting dry.

If you’ve been intimidated to try your hand at flower arranging using oasis (wet foam), I hope I’ve shown you how simple it is. I’d love to see any Valentine’s arrangements you attempt!

I hope you’ll come visit me at My Insanity, where I share an insane amount of ideas for all kinds of holidays, birthdays, parties, home decor and DIY projects, activities for the kids and more! And come see the cute flower arrangement Heidi made for my blog today!