Thursday, September 8, 2011

1 down... 5 to go

My mom, gramma and Manda came over last night to work on tissue paper flowers with me, but thanks to some great finds by my mom in the remnant bin at the fabric store - I spent the evening working on a different kind of flower. That's right, I FINALLY have a flower for in my hair, and considering I DIY-ed it - which was certainly not the original plan, I am thrilled with how it turned out.


I know the dirty background of my dining room table isn't much of a backdrop, but isn't it pretty?!?

I didn't take any pictures of my progress, mostly because I totally winged it, and also because the project involved an open flame and it was making my mom nervous every time I got my fingers too close. But for reference, I used this awesome tutorial I found thanks to some googling. Since I didn't know if my satiny fabric find was the same that was used on the blog I found, I used the same process - cut out shape, singe the edge - but just did different sized "petals" that I layered together instead of cutting out flower shapes like in the original tutorial. I'm actually really pleased with how the flower turned out considering it was my first shot at it! 

For the center of the flower, I decided I really wanted to use one of my grandma's old buttons. I originally planned to use them to make boutonnieres for the guys, but since we decided not to do bouts at all I realized I wasn't "involving" the memory of my grandmother in any way like I wanted to. So, Manda and I searched her button jar for something sparkly or silvery... and came up empty handed. What we did find was a gold button that we loved the shape of, so Manda got to work painting it gray with a little brush, and then used a toothpick to dab tiny white dots in all the little crevices! We experimented with different glitters to give it a little sparkle (which actually involved Manda having to paint a second button - sorry kiddo), but for now I'm leaving it alone while I figure out exactly what I want to do with it. My mom suggested tiny little rhinestones sporadically on the petals and while I'm not crazy about that idea I'm thinking they would work placed very carefully on the button where the white dots currently are. We'll see.

In the meantime while I figure out the center of my flower, I'll be starting on making smaller gray versions of this project for the bridesmaids to wear in their hair on the big day. Since they each have a different style dress and will have different shoes, hair and jewelry, I'm excited for a little something to tie them all together!

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