How to Make Silk Flower Bud Vases
Whether you need to update your decor or brighten the day of a friend, making a bud vase with silk flowers is an easy outlet for your creativity. Bud vases are small with narrow necks, so you can only include two or three silk flowers with a few stems of silk greenery. Choose colors that match the season or your room's palette. Bud vases are ideal for small areas, such as bathrooms, the corner of kitchen counters or end tables.
Things You'll Need
- Silk flowers
- Silk greenery
- Bud vase
- Florist foam
- Wire cutters
- Hot glue
- Hot glue gun
- Spanish moss
- River rocks or marbles
- Colored sand
Instructions
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1
Choose a vase. This can be a standard, clear, bud vase or any container that is at least 6 inches tall and has a narrow neck opening. For die-hard crafters, try dipping newspaper strips in papier mache glue and wrapping them around an empty plastic water bottle. When it dries, paint it in a color that complements your flower color scheme. Fill it with sand to add weight and keep it steady.
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2
Fill the vase with florist foam, river rocks, marbles or sand. If you're using florist foam, which is a green version of Styrofoam, fill the bottom of the vase with Spanish moss. Cut the foam to fit snugly inside the neck of the vase, then glue Spanish moss to the outside of the foam before pushing it into the vase. This will hide the stems and the foam. River rocks, marbles and sand serve two purposes: they hold the stems in place and offer weight to keep the bud vase from toppling over.
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3
Slide your vase to the edge of a table or counter. Hold your first piece of greenery up to the vase. If you're using floral foam, measure the stem from the middle of the foam. If you're using sand, rocks or marbles, measure the stem from the bottom of the vase. Trim the stem with your wire cutters so that the greenery sticks up as far above the vase as you like. The greenery should surround the flowers, so choose a height that is almost equal to the overall height you want the arrangement. This is typically at least twice the height of the vase - if you're using a 6-inch vase, your greenery should stick up between 6 inches and 8 inches.
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4
Trim additional greenery to outline the shape of your flower arrangement. Typically, bud vases use about four pieces of greenery: a tall one in the back, two slightly shorter ones on each side and one in front to hide the flower stems. Place the back three pieces of greenery into the bud vase. If you're using floral foam, dab some hot glue on the bottom before inserting the stems into the foam.
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5
Trim your flowers. If you're using one flower, trim it so that the bloom sticks up slightly higher than the tallest greenery. If you're using three flowers, cut them so they will fit under each other instead of beside each other. Insert the flowers, starting with the tallest. Place the second one slightly to the side and below the first one, then place the third one to the other side and below the second one.
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Insert the final piece of greenery in front of the flower stems to hide them. If you are adding small silk filler flowers, such as babies breath, insert it in between the flowers.
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Tips & Warnings
If you use sand, river rocks or marbles, you can easily remove and replace the flowers later without remaking the entire arrangement. This is handy if you want to change your bud vase to match the seasons.
Don't use scissors to cut silk flower stems. The wire in the stems will dent or dull or scissor blades.
References
- Photo Credit Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
