DIY Working with Dried Flowers Making a Wreath, Swag, & More

Making a dried flower wreath  

Fresh greenery can be used to cover a wreath base first. Then embellish the leaves with dried roses, bear grass and dried pepper berries.1. Mist moss to soften it and make it more pliable. Secure it to a straw base wreath with hot glue (or secure it to a foam wreath base with floral pins). 2. Cut the stems of the greenery from 2"-3". Attach clusters of leaves to the wreath using floral greening pins.  Cover all sides of the wreath generously with the plant material. Overlap the stems as you go. As the wreath dries the leaves will shrink, so you need to create a full base. 3. Wire the stems of the decorating material to floral picks (wired wood picks) and insert throughout the leaves.

Hanging Bunches

Select colors of plant material that will coordinate with the proposed site of your arrangement. 1. Working on a flat surface, place the longest stems so they fan out at the back of the arrangement. Grasses such as oats or wheat provide an attractive background for the subtle shades of dried flowers. 2. Keep the tips spread out and the ends close together as you arrange long flowers like delphinium or larkspur slightly lower than the grasses. 3. Place your compact flowers at various heights within the center of the arrangement. Roses, hydrangeas and strawflowers are perfect focal accents. 4. Fill out the bottom and sides of the arrangement with caspia, sea lavender, additional grasses and other similar fine material. 5. Bind the stems with florist coiled wire (a lightweight roll wire), and hot glue a perfect, paper bow close to the top of the stems. 6. Make a hanging loop in the center of the back of the arrangement by slipping a piece of 20-gauge wire through some of the stems and twisting it into a loop.

Swags

A walk in the woods is more fun when you can gather things as you go for a project. Measure the space where you want to hang your swag so you know how long your twigs and branches need to be. 1. Working flat on a table, tie four bundles of twigs and branches about 4" from the ends. Use spool wire or twine. 2. To make the center loop, push the open sides of two bundles together. Wire or tie some of the overlapping branches to secure. 3. To add the side bundles, wire or tie them to the ends of the center section. 4. Insert berries and dried flowers into the twigs. Add bows to the corners of the swag.

 

Dried Haku

The floral headdress first appeared in history during the time of the Greeks. It is as much in style now as it was then. Dried headdresses are made the same way as fresh ones, by bundling groups of flowers together and wiring them to a floral stem wire. Bows evenly spaced throughout the circlet or trailing ribbons can be added to cover the hooks at either ends of the wire. Beads, pearls and feathers can be added by wiring and taping them like flowers. 1. Form the basic circle with two, twenty-three inch long, 20-gauge wires. Form hooks on the ends. Bind the wire together with floral tape. 2. Using bright coiled floral wire, bind up small bunches of flowers such as roses, delphiniums and gypsophila. Cover the wire with floral tape. 3. Start taping the bunches to the top end of the wire. Leave a slight gap to allow for hooking. Gradually build up the bunches in overlapping layers. The flowers can also be taped to the wire starting from each end, so they point towards each other in the middle. 4. When all the bundles are attached, bend the wire round a little at a time. Hook the ends together, and conceal the hook with a ribbon.

Flower Garden

By placing floral material in groups of varying heights, you can achieve a very different effect. Fruits and berries can be interspersed among the flowers. 1. Wedge floral foam snugly into your container.2. Using dried larkspur, delphinium or any tall, thin flowers fill about one fourth of the container. Select one or two other tall florals and fill another fourth of the space. 3. Add some artificial fruit and some round, compact flowers. Fill in with filler floral and leaves.

Small Garden
	Making of a small moss garden. 1. Shape floral foam to suggest a geological terrain and hot glue it to the inside of the container.2. Tightly pack moss to completely cover the foam. Secure it with floral pins or hot glue. 3. Add pebbles, stones, sections of bark or wood, tree twigs and dried flowers

Abstract Ikebana

Based on an asymmetrical triangle, the three points in the design represent heaven, man and earth. The simple, bonsai container is essential for this dramatic style. Painted china or an elaborate vase would detract from the clean, pure lines of the design.

1. Insert the branches into a small block of floral foam that is securely anchored in the left side of the container.

2. Add the three ferns, some grape hyacinth and field rape accenting the strong direction and leading the eye to the focal point, the cluster of poppy seed heads and the hydrangea blooms.

Continue in Floral Design Instruction with How to make your own potpourri with dried flowers & herbs

See below for more links to other projects.