How to Craft With Artificial Flowers
Nothing is as beautiful as a bouquet of freshly picked flowers. Nothing except, some fans think, a bouquet made of some of the new, botanically correct artificial flowers. A long-time craft--one that began with the Chinese in the Middle Ages, according to the Human Flower Project--the art of producing artificial flowers is once again at a peak. Silks and advanced plastic composites are being fashioned into garlands, stalks and flower arrangements for home, office and even landscape beautification.
Aside from the obvious arranging of flowers for display, there are many crafting projects that start with a bunch of artificial posies. These clever, decorative touches bring the natural beauty of flowers inside and can lighten a drab corner or add a festive touch to a multitude of unexpected objects.
Things You'll Need
- Artificial flowers
- Magnets
- Hot glue gun
- Push pins
- Bulletin board or chalkboard
- Frames (picture, mirror)
- Brooch frame
- Hair clip frame
- Safety pins
- Flip-flop sandals
- 1 inch wide grosgrain ribbon, varied lengths
Instructions
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Apply a festive artificial bloom to a magnet with a hot glue gun. Use it to decorate your refrigerator. Daisy magnets in summer and poinsettia blooms for the holidays add a pleasing graphic detail to your kitchen.
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2
Use push pins to affix artificial flowers around the perimeter of a bulletin board, and hot glue for a chalkboard, mirror or picture frame. Poke in some leaves or other accents, such as pine cones or an artificial bird, around the flowers for additional interest.
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3
Create a blooming brooch or hair clip for personal adornment. Affix a single flower to a brooch pin frame (available at craft stores) with your hot glue gun. If you prefer the flowers-in-your-hair look, hot-glue a green leaf to a hair clip frame and follow with a spray of artificial flowers, such as lily-of-the-valley or wisteria, to create a dramatic hair decoration.
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4
Hot-glue flowers to a hand mirror, as well as to the handle of a brush or a comb with complementary flowers, for a one-of-a-kind gift set.
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Safety-pin artificial flowers to the strips on a pair of plain flip-flops to turn them into a fashion statement.
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Create holiday tree decorations. Cut 1-inch grosgrain ribbon into lengths of 3 feet or more. Using your hot glue gun, start at one end of each ribbon length and affix flowers down the length of the ribbon. You can place the blooms close together so that no ribbon shows through or leave space between them, so that the colored ribbon becomes part of the decoration, as you prefer.
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Tips & Warnings
Flower crafts are an easy, creative gift project for kids. For example, with adult supervision and assistance, they can hot-glue flowers to clay pots for a gardening grandma, and make garden markers by wire-tying artificial flower heads to wooden sticks.
Flower garlands similar to the holiday tree flower ribbons are lovely decorations for garden parties and weddings.
