How to Create a Spring Bouquet!

I recently wrote a blog on how to transform wood flowers into their fresh flower counterparts with just a little paint (you can find it here) and knew I needed to create something with all those pretties! I love a versatile piece so I decided to create a bouquet that can be popped into any vase or vessel to become a spring centerpiece.

Paint and Stem Your Flowers!

Once your flowers are painted and dry, grab some floral wire stems (I prefer 16 or 18 gauge) and hot glue them to the bottom of your flowers.

Prep Your Greenery!

Greenery and filler usually come in bunches of stems. I find it easiest to use single stems while building my bouquets and other arrangements and here are some of my go-to moves to prepare them!

1. Use your wire cutters to remove each individual stem from the bundle. I cut as close to the "handle" as possible.
2. Remove the leaves/filler that are close to the base of the individually cut stem. You'll only need the top section (at most around 4" from the tippy top for a small bouquet), so pull off the pieces below that. Use scissors or wire cutters to remove the extra nubs from the stem. We will stem those extra leaves next!
3. Some leaves have a little "cup" at the bottom which is how they held onto the original stem. You can glue the floral wire directly into that cup. See the lamb's ear (top right) in the picture above as an example.
4. Other leaves/filler have a hole at the base. For these, I like to insert my floral wire into the hole and loop it over. You can use needle nose pliers to secure it into place or just give it a tight squeeze with your fingers.
5. Some fillers may have very short stems after you cut them from the handle. To lengthen them enough to place into bouquets, I will use floral tape or vinyl tape to attach a separate floral stem.

While this is a relatively easy task, it can be tedious and take a bit of time. Throw on whatever show you're binging on these days and get going!

Layer Your Greenery - Parts 1-4!

To start (top left picture), I used my largest flat leafy greenery (artificial eucalyptus) and bent the stems to flare them outward. This created my outermost layer of greenery for the bouquet.

Between each "layer" of greenery, I used floral vinyl tape to hold the stems in place!

Next (top right), I added in my laurel as it has smaller leaves but also much more volume to its shape. Again, I bent the stems outward. We are looking to fill the greenery base from the outside in with this process!

My third greenery (bottom left) is a wispy sage greenery with a ton of small leaves/texture. The fuller pieces I grabbed had a hanging flow so when I added them in, they "spilled" a bit over the side. I love this look as it gives your bouquet/arrangement great movement!

Once I have a layer of each greenery type added, I start the process again with the first type (our silver dollar eucalyptus as seen in the bottom right photo).

Layer Your Greenery - Parts 5-8!

I wanted the greenery base to be very full so I continued to add layers until all gaps were covered, all the way through the center!

When I was done adding greenery, I took a look at the bouquet from the sides to ensure the layers looked to be incorporated into one another rather than harsh separation. If it is looking too much like a 7 layer dip with visible layers, simply move some leaves within the greenery base to blend those layers together!

Add Your Flowers - Step 1!

Here comes spring! Time to add our painted wood flowers 

Since these flowers are all different shapes and sizes, they can be tricky to add into your greenery base. Here are a few tricks I use when placing them!

Whenever I am creating a bouquet, I like to start with my focal flower first. For this arrangement, that is my pink edged hellebore! I tend to not place them dead center as you can see from the photo above.

I then grabbed my largest and brightest flowers to add in. I wanted to make sure the bright yellow wasn't only on one section.

Add Your Flowers - Step 2!

The next flowers I brought into the arrangement were the largest (the daisy, the peony, the primrose) to ensure they would have room to fit! I also added the anemone because it has a dark navy blue center which is nowhere else in our color story. Since that makes it stand out, I wanted it to be intentionally placed in a focal spot.

Finish Adding Your Flowers!

Now it is time to fill in all of the gaps with your smaller flowers! You still want to pay attention to colors (ie - even though the purples in the crocus and pansies are different, I kept them separated so purples were spread evenly throughout the bouquet) and flower spacing but don't be afraid to play with placement!

Pop it in a Vase!

I had a tall cylindrical glass vase from the dollar store that I had spray painted gold last year. It made for the perfect container for my spring bouquet!

As you can see from this sideview, creating that greenery base covers the wire stems on the flowers and has a beautiful, intentional flow.

I love the happy spring colors and am so happy to be looking at this in my home, rather than the snow outside. Anyone else ready for spring now?!