Build a Bouquet

I learned a few things making this bouquet, which is lovely.  I have the stamp set that goes along with this and only used the dotted stamp for the pansy and the lined/woodgrain looking one for poppy.  I still need to attach leaves but I wanted them in the jar I was using before doing that so I would have a better idea of where to place the leaves.

Let me tell you about the stamping first.  I made the poppy flower first because I put the black centers together first thing.  The precut petals have a smooth side and a rough side, ever so slightly matte looking side.  I stamped on the shiny smooth side.  The petals needed a lot of drying time.  After the first flower, I stamped off on paper and then onto the petal to make the drying time quicker if needed at all.  I didn't realize at this point that the drying time would be quicker if I had stamped the other side.

Daisy - The directions are good enough that come with the bouquet, the pictures didn't help that much and actually mislead me on how far down to start wrapping the petal strip around the wire.  The first daisy I made I followed the instructions, stamping and all.  Here's the thing, the daisies I like and know have a yellow center and white petals.  There is no yellow going up the petal so I eliminated the stamping on this flower.  The other thing I mastered by the 3rd flower is wrapping the petals around the center.  The first time I wrapped, I tried to keep the petals tightly wrapped to the wire which resulted in it going down almost inch from the button center by the time I finished wrapping.  It looked like an Easter Lily but with petals.  I used the floral tape to bring it up some but it has shorter petals and looks funky.  I learned to just keep wrapping on top of the other white and not go down at all.  This results in the bottom of the white being 1/4-3/8" wide and the floral tape is used to fill in and make it look smoother in the transition from wire to flower.

Poppy - I mentioned above about the stamping and later learning about the two sides.  The poppy was pretty easy to put together.  I did do these wrong and didn't follow the picture.  When gluing the bottom of the petal, I over did it making it cup-like.  It made sense in my mind because I thought the bottom would be covering the black.  They still look fine, but follow the picture as far as how the bottom petal should be glued.  The petals are then attached to the side of the black, not the bottom.  The black is covered with the green flower bottom.

Pansy - easy to do.  I have to admit I liked this one better than I thought I would.  I think it is because it is smaller and there are 3 stems combined.  I did stamp the dots on the flowers but I used Pool Party instead of Island Indigo.  I just wanted a more subtle look.

Wild Rose - another one I eliminated the stamping on.  Interestingly,  I glued the petals the same but I have one (far right) that is more open than the others.  Must have to do with the placement when I attached the petals.

Chrysanthemum - Not my favorite flower.  Looking at the directions, it says to "Separate petals and curl under slightly with a bone folder."  Looking at the picture, it looks like the tips should be curled up while the center goes down.  I may go back and redo the tips on this flower.  It would be good to have the tips going up do add a little something different.

A time-consuming project.  I think it ran me about 6 hours but I'm not sure as I had to stop to take kids to basketball, work, etc.  I didn't really track it closely.  I worked on it on Monday, Tuesday and finished Thursday (minus the leaves).

I do like it.  I saw where someone made the flowers into a wreath.  Perhaps I'll give that a go.  I do have the die to make the flowers, but I'm curious as to what paper to use.  This is a cotton paper, like tissue paper.  Cardstock seems like it would be too thick.  Someday I'll find out. :)