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Several months ago, I was asked if I would consider making a brooch bouquet for a friend of a friend's wedding. I thought, sure! I love new adventures and doing crafty things. It can't be that hard, right?
I had never heard of a brooch bouquet, but when I searched Pinterest, there were so many gorgeous bouquets! Yet, they just didn't seem to show you how to make one. So, Ta Da! Here I am to save the day!! 😉 It turned out so beautiful!
Anna, the bride, was great to work with! She provided all of the brooches, some were gifts and some were sentimental, and others she picked up here and there.
My problem was I didn't know where to start. Until I figured it all out, I started wiring all of the brooches.
I used a wire just like this, Artistic Wire 20-Gage. It made them very sturdy.
I just wrapped the wire through most of the brooches. You can't see the silver wire at all. Here I just clumped them together.... I still had no idea how I was going to do this.
I met with Anna and her mom and we ran through some ideas. I really wanted this bouquet to be what she wanted, she's the bride! A plan formulated and I ran with it! 👍
I purchased a 7.5 inch styrofoam ball. Hubby had a 1 inch PVC pipe on hand that he cut down to about 13 inches. Anna wanted the handle to be around 9-10 inches long.
I thought I took more pictures... Ugh! Anyway, let me walk you through to this part. We used a hacksaw and cut off about a third of the ball off. It needs to be sort of a mushroom shape.
Then we used a 1 inch drill bit and drilled in the center about 3 inches. I inserted the pipe to make sure it fit and was the correct length. I used my low heat glue gun and spread glue all around the end of the PVC pipe, and reinserted it into the styrofoam. It was very secure and strong.
Next, I primed the handle with spray paint primer and let it dry. Now we're ready to start making it pretty!
At first, I just put a few here and there, just trying to get a feel for how they would fit together.
I found the best way was to put as many flat ones on first. It was easier to add layers on top of them. The more they can overlap, the more depth you will have to your bouquet. It was basically was trial and error...
Once I had them where I was sure they were going to stay, I applied hot glue to the stem and inserted it into the styrofoam. That secured the brooch so that it wouldn't fall out.
Here's some more progress. If a brooch was a bit wobbly, then I would also put a dot of glue and secure it to another brooch. Let me just tell you, this baby was going to be heavy!
When the brooches were all attached, I needed to figure out how in the world I was going to finish off underneath and wrap the handle. I saw photos of beautiful satin ribbon just floating under the brooches. They looked so professional, I had an idea so... I just kinda went for it!
I started by cutting lengths of ribbon, folding them over and gluing the ends together. They were the length from the center to the outer edge of the bouquet.
Using my trusty little glue gun, I put a dot at the edge first, where I wanted the fold to be then at the handle to secure it. Then I just kept overlapping them. It worked out better than I thought it would! 😍
As I needed more lengths of ribbon, I stopped gluing them together, because it was getting more difficult to get them to lay flat. I laid the ribbon out, then glued the bottom, folded it over and glued to the handle. I eventually overlapped from where I started.
This is the only picture I took of the bottom complete. Hubby made a stand that held the bouquet off the ground for display.
For the handle, I started at the bottom and just wrapped tightly and glued. At the top, once I covered the edges of the loops, I folded over the end and glued it. It worked!
A friend of mine, took this photo at the wedding reception. I love how it sparkles!
Here are a few more beautiful photos of the lovely couple and bouquet.
It was such a pleasure to make this bouquet. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at thestonybrookhouse@gmail.com.
Blessings,
Lori