November 04, 2020

Bouquet and Arrangement Hack!

Bouquets are incredibly versatile arrangements. Pop them in a vase and you have a cute home decor piece. Attach one to a wood board and you have an amazing wall hanging. Wrap a bouquet in craft paper and now you have a beautiful gift for a friend.

But...they can also be difficult to create! While prepping my sola wood flowers and fillers one day, I saw a way to make this process a bit easier so that anyone can create a stunning bouquet! It should help take some pressure off of the thought process behind what goes where and give you a super simple way to get started.

Here we go

You'll Need Greenery and Fillers...

...And Even More Fillers!

Dried greenery and fillers have continued to be on trend this year! I wanted this bouquet to be bright but still able to be out every season so pairing bright and vibrant fillers like Yarrow and Sesame Bloom with more muted ones like Phalaris and Achillea of Pearl really allows for a year round vibe. I also chose fillers like Bunny Tails and Pampas to bring some movement to the arrangement. Since they are not rigid, it really helps bring the bouquet to life!

You can choose any greenery and fillers that you would like for your bouquet. I have used this process several times with different greenery, fillers and flowers (you can see a completely different vibe in this YouTube video) and it has worked for each variation! So find some bundles that you love the look of together and let's get them prepped for our hack.

Prep Your Greenery and Filler!

You are going to want to have individual pieces/bunches of each filler type.

As you begin to pull them from their full bundles, you will find that some pieces may not be long enough for a bouquet assembly. With those, you can attach a floral stem using vinyl tape. For others, you may find that a single stem has too many pieces of the filler (this happens for filler types like scabiosa or willow eucalyptus). In those cases, break apart the single stem into smaller pieces and attach a floral stem using vinyl tape. And for some fillers (thinking bunny tails and phalaris), you may want to pull a few single stems to help create a tiny bundle of them.

For a full tutorial on my greenery and filler prep tips, check out this blog I did earlier this year!

For each flower you want in your bouquet, make sure to have enough individual stems/tiny bundles of each filler type ready to go. You may not have to use them all (we'll chat further about how we are using them in a later step) but as prep takes the longest amount of time, I always love to knock that out right away!

One last thing to note: for this bouquet, I only used ¼-⅓ of each original greenery/filler bundle so there is plenty left over for other projects and/or bouquets!

Hand Paint Your Flowers!

I love, love, LOVE statement flowers in bouquets. And with wood flowers, you can use paint to create a similar color palette from two completely different flower types!

With a little acrylic craft paint, water and a paintbrush, I transformed the Mystic Moon (the larger flower) and two of the Ginger flowers for these fun, bright beauties! If you want a more detailed tutorial on how to hand paint wood flowers, you can check one out here.

Spray Paint Is Also An Option!

Sometimes wood flowers with curled petal edges can be finicky and start to uncurl when you paint them with your usual paint/water mixture. To stop this from happening, I have found over the years that either airbrushing or spray painting them is the best way to get them painted! For these Cornelias, I used Design Master Floral Spray in coral and I am obsessed with the color that it brought to our overall look

Once your flowers are dry, add a dab of hot glue to the bottom and insert a floral wire. I prefer 18 gauge.

Make a Flower and Filler Bundle!

Assembly time!

This part really is as simple as pulling one of each individual piece of filler and one flower and throwing them all together into one bundle! Use vinyl tape to wrap your bundle together, keeping it all in place and set aside.

Make a Bundle for Each Flower You've Painted!

As you can see from this picture, I have placed the flowers in different spots in the bundles. Some face left, some right, some are brought forward and others are towards the back of the bundle. This helps when you bring them all together into one bouquet!

You also don't have to use each filler in every single bundle but using the same fillers throughout ensures an overall cohesiveness. Also, for my statement/largest flower, I used a few extra pieces of some of the fillers to make sure it was a full bundle.

Put Your Bundles Together!

This part is also surprisingly quick and painless! Grab your statement flower bundle first and then?

 

Simply start grabbing other bundles (I alternated flower colors) and place them together. Once all of your bundles are together and in place, take vinyl tape and wrap around the handle.

You now have a full bouquet!

Pretty Bouquet is Made!

Just another view of the bouquet I made for this tutorial because I can't get enough of it!

If you want to finish off the handle with ribbon or twine, you can absolutely do that. This one will be placed in a ceramic container in my sunroom to brighten things up!