A Flower For The Moms, Part I

In case you don't remember, I'm doing my own flowers. Why not? It worked out for Sister A., and it was actually a really fun activity for us girls to do the day before the wedding. It was a nice calm amongst the chaos, and I'm really looking forward to sitting down with my girls and building our bouquets together.

My sister did buy custom corsages for the moms, though. I was prepared to do this, too, until I saw Miss Earrings' great post about fake flower corsages, and the light bulb was on.

I've already made my hair flower, so corsages should be a snap. And they were! I've decided to post how I did it even though it's not that different from a hair flower, just to give you an idea of my methods.

This post is just about the de-construction and re-construction. I'll show how to make the wrist loop in another post.

You'll need:

-Fake flower of your choice
-Hot glue gun
-Heavy duty wire cutters
-Tulle scraps, I used a roll I got at Michael's in the wedding section in ivory
-Pearls or beads for the center

I scoured the fake florals in Michael's for what felt like hours until I found a good candidate. A big, poofy flower? Check.


You'll need to cut the flower off of the stem pretty close to the hips (leaves just under the bottom petals), but be sure to leave at least an inch so you have something to grab on to.

It takes a bit of work, but pull the hips/base of the petals down the stem until you get it off. Once you get that first part off, it should be pretty easy to get the petals off.



Take all the layers apart and take out any plastic pieces separating the petals. You will be left with a slightly-less poofy flower.



I chose to leave out the biggest bottom layers of petals as this was a rather large flower.



Cut out a square piece of tulle, slightly larger on all sides than your flower.




Fold it like a fan. I've got mine like a twisted fan, because I thought it looked better, but just do whatever you like.



I don't recommend you do this next part like me unless you enjoy burnt fingers. Use your hot glue gun to glue the bottom layer of the petals you're using in the corsage onto the tulle. I just did a small dot in the middle and that was fine, aside from the burning.



Keep gluing petals in ascending order. I added a few smaller squares of bunched-up tulle in between layers, to give the petals some lift and add some more texture to the flower.

Pro tip: To add more dimension, put a small dot of glue on the base of each petal of a new layer before gluing it down, then bunch the flower together while you set it in place. Hold it for a few seconds to let the glue cool before letting it go.

Once you reach the middle, glue a pretty pearl in the center where the plastic stamen used to be.



Trim the edges of the tulle close to the flower and add a few feathers if you wish. Ta-da! Some gorgemous flowers for the wrists of our mothers.

I'd originally planned to get a dark orange flower for my mom, but was unable to find one I liked. I used a flower that I already had at home (it might look familiar, in fact), but it's quite a bit smaller than the other one, so I will probably keep looking for another.

And there you have it. The flower tutorial I never thought I'd write. It's so easy, in fact, that I've decided to make the boutonnieres for the guys, too.

Part II with the wrist loop coming soon!

Would you consider fake corsages?