Christmas carnation tree

It’s the holiday’s and what a great excuse to get crafty and make pretty things.  I decided to do have some holiday fun with flowers.  Carnations again.  This time red.  I’m hooked on using wet floral foam to make arrangements. I found some cute miniature red carnations at the grocery store for 3.99 a bunch.  Seems so inexpensive for flowers.  And when you group carnations in a tight arrangement I think it really shows off their often over-looked beauty.  For this arrangement I also peppered in some bright green mums.

I wanted to create a Christmas tree shaped arrangement but the store was out of cone floral foam so I fashioned my own tree shape from two blocks of wet floral foam (before I soaked it) . . .

I used the flower vessel from my wedding day  (again) that I also used in a previous post about arranging with wet floral foam.  I filled the bottom of the vessel with pieces of soaked floral foam (sculpting remnants) to fill the hole up a bit so the “tree” would have flat (ish) surface to perch upon.  I also secured the tree with some light weight floral wire.  You know, so the tree wouldn’t split down the center and collapse.  FYI once you soak the foam in water it becomes surprisingly heavy and sturdy.

Then I just started pushing the carnation tips into the floral foam.  (Remember cut the carnations at an angle and pretty short.  You can read more about that in one of my previous posts).  Hmm, hope it doesn’t just end up looking like a party hat . . .

I started realizing that the four bunches of mini carnations I bought were not going fill the entire tree.  Woops! (again) So I had to steal some carnations from the bottom of the arrangement and think of a way to fill that space!  See?  Even crafting requires mild problem solving skills!

At first I thought maybe Christmas tree trimmings would look nice at the base.  But I didn’t really like where that was going . . .

So I decided to just shorten the arrangement by carefully trimming off some of the base.  Yay!  Problem solved.  Then I added the cute bright green mums.  Keep these stems long so that you can tuck them nice and snug in between the carnations.

Then time for some Holiday sparkles!

These I just got at the craft store and used floral wire to push them into the arrangement . . .

And the finished product:

The little silver glitter balls were trying to talk me into adding some lights too.  I do have a couple mini battery operated ones.  But I just decided to keep it simple.  Didn’t want to get all Clark Griswold with the arrangement . . .

I wonder how long this arrangement will survive.  The last time I used wet floral foam and carnations (for my daughter’s b-day) it lasted two weeks believe it or not.

I also had a chance to use a cute mini candy jar (a thrift store find from long ago) and filled it with the rest of the little glitter balls.  My husband was all, “Wow, is that candy?”  No, you weirdo.  Those are mini glitter balls.  Duh.

PS Get creative!  Holidays are the best excuse to do so!  Just ask Martha Stewart.

Until next Monday

Jennifer

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