The One Where We Make A Flower Ball Thing...

We're into the homestretch of Cuz's wedding, so now is the time to cross things off her list.  We took a ride to our local Michaels to see what we could find there.  And as we walked through the aisles, Cuz mentioned that she was still undecided about what her flower girl would be carrying down the aisle.  She learned that fresh flower petals were not allowed, but she could throw fake petals.  But walking on faux petals didn't really appeal to her.  The florist also suggested a pomander, or as Cuz called it "a flower-ball thing," but it was a little expensive for a ball that would inevitably be thrown around after the ceremony.  

There's something about Michaels that makes me feel like an amazing DIY ninja-pirate.  As I stroll the aisle, I become more and more convinced that I can make anything--what do you need? Just grab me a hot glue gun and some ribbon, and I'll make it!  So before I knew what I was saying, I'd convinced Cuz that we could make a flower-ball thing for less than half what her florist quoted, using silk flowers. 

We grabbed three stems of red silk hydrangea, a Styrofoam ball (medium sized), 1.5 inch gold ribbon, and a wooden dowel, and headed home.  Our moms thought we were a little nuts, but they couldn't resist helping us. 

 
I pulled the flower bunches off the "stem" and my mom cut them into the individual flowers.

While my mom was on a roll, I put a hole through the center of the Styrofoam ball.  I tried to make it using the dowel but I gave up and used a ballpoint pen instead.  Then I pushed the ribbon through the hole, to create a handle.  


Just then, the Bear called and I jumped on Skype, so I handed the reigns to Cuz (love love technology).  She got started gluing the flowers to the Styrofoam ball.  We figured it was easier to make a hole first using a wooden skewer (or a souvlaki stick, as we call it in our family), add a little hot glue to the end of the flower, and then attach it to the ball.  


In no time we went from this:

To this:

After that was done, we went back and made sure that there wasn't any green Styrofoam peeking through.  When we were sure that we hadn't missed a spot, we adjusted the ribbon handle, hot glued it into place, made a knot in the bottom and trimmed the remaining ribbon to size.  

So in less than an hour, we created a pomander that could withstand the toughest punishment from the five year old flower girl (and maybe the ring-bearer, who knows)and still look lovely. 

And the icing on the cake?  This baby cost around $15.  How about that for crossing things off the list?