Creating a Fall Centerpeice

As promised,

here's how I generally make floral arrangements.

My first job in high school was a floral assistant for a gal who made dried arrangements

out of her basement and sold them to retail places and craft fairs.

Mostly what I did was her prep work and clean-up,

but I paid attention and she showed me how a few things.

Supplies:

3-4 large floral stems. These will be the focal points.

3 medium sized different floral stems (in a different color or shape, such as the golden wisteria)

2-3 tall stems (different color/shape, such as the brown hollyhocks(?) )

An assortment of fillers--berries, feathers, thistle, branch stems, heather-types.

Spanish moss

Floral Foam

Florist wire

Wire cutters

A container--metal, ceramic, woven basket--

whatever you have on hand will probably work.

Step-By-Step Instructions:

1- measure and cut the floral foam to fit the container. I like it to kinda squish down in there a little.

If the container is bigger than the foam, hot glue it to the bottom first to keep it secure.

2- Take the Spanish moss and cover the foam. You can secure it with floral wire picks, or just take a bit of wire and make your own wire pick: fold it over kinda like a wide bobby pin and just push it into the foam. It disappears into the moss so you can't see it. Besides, you're going to cover it with floral stems so it doesn't have to be pretty. You just don't want the floral foam to peek out.

3- Start with your fillers.  Not all of them, but you're building the base of the arrangement, so start putting some into the bottom. Try to make it natural-looking. Let some hang down over the container's edge. Don't put them straight up, in the middle. Just around the edges where the foam meets the container.

4- Add your largest floral stems; make them high and low, facing a different direction. 

As a general rule, your floral arrangement should be twice as tall and twice as wide as your container.

You can make it bigger, don't go smaller.

Most of the time, I have to cut some of the stem off if I'm putting it into floral foam. Just don't cut it too short.

5- Add the medium sized florals in--try to keep a balance.

6- Add the tall stems

7- Use the rest of the fillers.

*A word about the fillers: if you look closely, there's some yellow heather-y looking filler on the bottom, and some branches poking out--those are both stems that were ONE stem that I cut apart with wire cutters.

Voila!

Tips: 

Use coupons to get your stems on sale.

Pay attention to florals you may see either in craft stores, hotel lobbies, restaurants, etc.--if you like what you see, try and mentally dissect it so you can recreate it at home.

You Tube has lots of tutorials too.

I don't usually like silk flowers that are colored in non-natural ways,

those in this arrangement were bought for me to put together,

but I generally try to keep it real.

You can also add fruit (like artichoke, apples, pears, lemons, limes)

or even pinecones or cottonbolls, to your arrangement.

Ok, that's it. If you try this, be sure to share a link to your site so we can all

OOOOHHHHH and AHHHHHHHH 

over your creation.