Paper Dogwood Arrangement

So among a top of the line kitchen, large collection of designer handbags and a live in stylist, one item essential to my wish list should I hit the lottery is flowers. Everywhere. Like we're talking arrangements in every room of my house. Oh and while I'm at it, I'd hire a florist to take care of it all. Because well, I'll need to keep my schedule free for jet setting and whatnot. Plus, did you ever let a vase of flowers sit around for too long and then you catch a wiff of rotting plant material when you dump the water down the drain? Ugh.....could be possibly one of the worst smells ever. Rich ladies such as myself shouldn't have to be subjected to stuff like that...

So, yeah. Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because the reality of my life is that I can't justify spending money to keep even one arrangement in my dining room every week. Because of my love all of things green, I've filled the main level of my house with tons of plants. Unfortunately it's just not the same as a big beautiful bunch of flowers to greet me when I walk in the door everyday. So, I created the next best thing....a flower arrangement that lives forever. And even better - NEVER needs water! Woot!



I've seen quite a few different types of handmade flowers on various crafting blogs and I had always wanted to try my hand at it. Some were made with just paper and others made completely out of a combination of yarn, felt and fabric. And some of the techniques used really made the flowers look tasteful and realistic and not like some kindergarten art project. Well, I cheated on this first go around because I didn't make the flowers. These are 3d dogwood flower stickers I scored 75% off at Michaels.




I regularly scour their clearance rack for embellishments and whatnot for my card and scrapbook projects. When I spotted these, I knew exactly what I'd use them for. I love dogwood trees because when they bloom it means spring has officially started. I have a white one in my backyard and would like to add a pink one somewhere one day.

The branches I used for my dogwood arrangement sadly came from the other tree, a flowering pear, that used to also reside in the backyard. It split during a strong wind storm we had one night and I was heartbroken to take it down. On the bright side, now it kinda gets to live on inside :)

All that was involved here was cutting out several dozen leaves from some spring green card stock and a little hot gluing. I anchored the branches in the vase with some river rock. This was really the most difficult part of the whole process in order to get the branches to stand up correctly and in some sort of eye pleasing display. I have it on a table in my entryway and it brings nice contrasting color to the room. This was pretty novice work and it would have been more interesting to create my own flowers but whatevs. These stickers were too pretty to shove in a scrapbook.

Here's some examples of the projects I mentioned earlier. Too freakin' cool huh?

Pom Pom Flowers

Paper Cherry Blossom Display

Felt Flower Winter Wreath

Fabric Flowers

Paper Flowers

Now that I'm back to the full time grind while also trying to soak up every moment outdoors this summer, my time to craft is limited. I still have been cooking up a storm and whipping up some delightful cocktails so you'll definitely see a lot more content from the kitchen. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!