Five Dollar Friday: Floral Arrangements

Anna

My lucky week: $3 arrangement. Thank you to my friend, Kate, who supplied the branches with berries so that I could work away at my arrangement. Hopefully next week I can pull off something a little more elaborate, but my $1 pails from Target completed the look. I stuck the branches into floral foam and used a gold leaf branch in each pail to spice up the arrangement. Some brown ribbon added more in the pail since I was running short on time. The berries won’t last long because I decided not to use water in the pails, not knowing if they would leak. I’ll get to enjoy the fresh look for a little while!

 

Mounted on my floating shelf in my apartment dining space. Doesn’t it add a touch of Christmas?

 

 

Five Dollar Friday: Floral Arrangements

Anna:

I found inspiration for this week from floral pomanders that can be found in many weddings and events. My floral arrangement idea didn’t end up including any fresh flowers or floral tape, but I was very happy with the results!  Last month, I purchased potpourri for the fragrance Fridays, and I was able to use the potpourri for this months project too. Here are the list of supplies to make the Potpourri Pomander:
Potpourri
Hot Glue Gun
Floral Foam Half-Ball
Thick Ribbon
Pins

At first, it seemed like the idea was not going to work, but luckily everything seemed to fall into place. I started by gluing the potpourri objects to the foam with the hot glue gun. Then, after the entire floral foam was covered, I started layering with the prettier pieces of potpourri.

I then tacked ribbon to the back of the foam ball with pins so that it can be hung. The foam ball didn’t hang very well because it was so weighed down, so it looked top-heavy. I fixed this by simply hanging it at the end of our doorway, so that you can’t see the back-side of it from any angle. I would love to hear ideas about how to help it hang more evenly on the wall!

Sarah:

My floral arrangement this week also did not include any flowers. However, it was totally free! I was driving into my apartment complex and noticed a perfect pine branch in the driveway this week, and since I saw two ladies with strollers rapidly approaching, naturally I jumped out and grabbed it before they got their hands on that hot commodity. (Ok, I’m probably the only crazy who would actually pick it up off the ground.)

 

A little water, a little cutting, and two pears on two half-skewers, and all it needs is a partridge to be a perfect gift for the first day of Christmas.

Five Dollar Fridays: Floral Arrangements

Picture from Design Sponge

Our new Five Dollar Friday theme is floral arrangements. We both know this will be a challenge! But that’s what our Five Dollar Fridays are all about – choosing challenges that we will learn and grow from.

Today I just want to share some tips and tricks of flower arranging – most of which I learned at M.O.P.S. this week from our guest speaker, the owner of four Just Roses locations in Spokane, WA (I’m sorry to say I can’t remember her name). She showed us how easily and frugally we can make our own flower arrangements at home.

Tips:m

• Cut the stems of roses at an angle when you get them home, and immediately (like, within 5 seconds) put the stem in water.
• Use a vase that has been cleaned out with bleach to rid the container of any bacteria that will cause the flowers to die sooner.
• Buying flowers from a grocery store typically means that they have been exposed to gasses that cause them to fade sooner, and they are never as fresh as buying flowers from a florist.
• Free is good – use greenery from the yard or a walk to lengthen the life of your arrangement and bring visual interest in.
• Is faux faux pas? Absolutely not. Silk can be mixed with real in the same arrangement.
• Floral foam will shorten the life of your arrangement. Water is the best thing for your flowers. Use marbles or even a bigger flower like a chrysanthemum to hold the other flowers in.
• Feed your flowers with the food from the florist. Other things will help if you want to use something from around the house to add to the water – pennies (adjusts PH-balance), a few drops of bleach, or 7-up (to feed them some sugars).
• When using a mix of greenery with flowers, choose greenery that can stand alone. That way when the flowers fade you can pluck them out and still enjoy the greens.
• Cluster smaller flowers together, use some floral tape or wire if necessary. This way they will not become overwhelmed by the larger flowers.
• Think creatively when looking for a container for your flowers. If your container is too large, put a smaller vase inside to hold the flowers, and fill the empty space with something pretty.
• Use a sharp pair of scissors to cut your flowers before placing them in the vase.
• Replace the water once it gets cloudy. Too frequent replacement of the water will be detrimental to the flowers, they will get “shocked” by the continual change in PH-balance in the water.