Wedding Planning

I got engaged on Dec. 26th, 2010, and I've been planning for the set date of April 21st, 2012. The one problem is my mind is stuck on decorations more than anything else, just because it's the most inexpensive and FUN part of it all (minus the actual wedding itself).

Annnnyways. My name's Nikki and I really like crafty things. My problem though? I get distracted easily from the crafts I'm doing so when I finish something it's always really nice to show it off.

One of the first projects I found was off the Martha Stewart website, with paper roses. You use coffee filters, some floral tape, floral wire and water colors to create these amazing creations. They're a tad challenging to make but very rewarding. I made 3 or 4 so far, here are some that I made.

I pre-printed out the templates from the website and attached them to black poster board to make them stronger. I just hold them against the coffee filter and cut along it to get the petals. In total there are 6 different templates, and you will use 8 coffee filters per rose (template 5 & 6 are cut out twice).

Once the 8 coffee filters are cut you place them on the floral wire using the instructions (I watched the video, it was easier to understand what was needed) and use the floral tape to keep it there. The first 4 are the hardest part to do, after that it's just 3 petals at a time per level. It takes some practice to get the layering down so that there aren't a lot of blank gaps. The finished product looks like the rose to the right.

Once the rose is all put together you get all the watercolors. I use
Artist’s Loft™ 12 Pieced Watercolor Paint Set that I got from Michael's for only $4.99. (This was a great buy since I wasn't sure what colors I was wanting to experimenting with. I picked purple as the main color for my wedding so I need to go back and buy just white and purple.) You have to put a base coat of a watered down white, then the watered down base color (the main color stands out more if you paint it white first), then you trace the non-watered down main color along the edges of the petals.

Once the painting is done it needs to dry for about 24 hours (I bend the wire and hang it up in the bathroom on the towel rack). Once it's dry the most important step to make it look real comes to play. Using a skewer (the ones for kabobs is what I used) and you curl the petals (at a diagonal from the point of each petal). When you curve all the petals you get the finished product.

I finished a few purple ones and one pink one, and I think they look gorgeous! Each one (not counting drying) takes about 40 - 60 minutes to do, so I can't do it that often between work and school...but they're very inexpensive, I believe I tallied it up to be approx .50 cents per flower? I plan on using these in my wedding centerpieces, which when I get closer I'll try to put up how I want that to be set up.

Hopefully this is a good first post, and I want to bring many many more to the board of discussion. <3