Flower Bouquets

OK... I am pretty sure these are my favorite things I have EVER made... a few months ago there was a kit from Scrapologie, the St Patty's Day kit, that included a cone. Of course Ranjini designed the most precious little cone with vintage treats tucked in it. I had to order the kit and thought that the cone would be precious hanging in my new scrap room, whenever that would be done! Recently I found a set of the little cones and bought them in order to make a few treats. The other day I was inspired to make something for Julia & Natalie for our upcoming visit to NY for the 4th.
{Julia & Natalie are Tracy & Frank's little girls... Keith's best friends from college. Frank's birthday is also on the 4th so we go down there every year to celebrate. I love making little gifts to bring down - Julia just loves anything we bring down for her.}

I started by cutting paper to fit on each side. For Natalie's I used the Animal Crackers line from Making Memories (yes, the same thing used in a previous post - do you think I love it?!) The colors and designs are just perfect for baby girls - she is 1. Then for Julia's I used the Katlin line from Crate Paper. Julia's favorite color is pink but she also loves purple and this line is just so fun and whimsical for a 4 yr old girl.

Back to the creating part.... the idea was that I could cover the outside with paper and then fill it with, I hoped, paper flowers. I cut paper from different sheets of each line so everything was different, then I also covered the top inside of the cones with paper b/c they fold out. Heather clued me in that you can go to Michael's and search out fibers by bulk in the knitting section. There was a 20% off your whole order last week so what is more perfect to buy??? I bought fuzzy fibers and used them on the creases of the cones to add some dimension. Then I decorated each side with their name, one side had their age in a chipboard number all glittered up and then some fun words on the extra sides.

THEN... the flowers... I bought smaller dowels - 3/16 - and cut them at different lengths to act as the stems - side note: I would paint them the next time, but didn't have time. I went to my stash of flowers and started digging! I started by gluing them, but then figured out glue dots and double sided tape did the trick and was much easier to do! I figured out how to put them on using some dimension, layering them, using my flower punch to use the coordinating papers... but flowers need glitter... in comes the stickles! Stickles is possibly one of the greatest inventions ever... it's glue with glitter - but once it dries it doesn't stick to anything. You can literally use it on anything to add a glitter feel! I have tons of glitter to use with a glue pen, but this tends to be easier. Continuing on I realized that the centers of the flowers needed something too... Kate has these fabulous rhinestones at the shop - each package has 100 total in 3 different sizes for $2. Who wouldn't have every color?! I needed something to hold the flowers up inside the cone... searching through all my stuff I realized that tulle would not only look so fun, it would hold them up in different sizes, etc...

So here they are.... I finished with large eyelets on 2 of the sides that fold down and strung a ribbon through so that they could hang. The girls have a new playroom that Tracy has been putting together so I figured they could hang them in there. I made 8 flowers for each cone... they come out so precious.

(Note the green room in the background! Pictures to follow on that soon. I have to start loading it up and then I'll post... my creative juices are going to go NUTS when it's all done!!!)