Juice Can Bouquets: Upcycling is Beautiful

I love this bouquet every time I walk through the family room.  My master plan is all coming together in the form of beautiful flower arrangements.

Remember when I visited Uwajimaya in Seattle and shopped for interesting Japanese juice cans? This can is a yellow and purple Sugar Cane drink marked Puli Specialty product of Taiwan. I absolutely love it and the flowers I found in bloom were just what I had in mind for it. Success!

Instead of a traditional glass vase, I love having texture, pattern and color as the foundation for my small flower arrangements.  If I had my own flower shop, I know that these would fly off the shelves.

I am home and able to pull from my own garden to make juice can bouquets. This arrangement has Honey Dijon roses, purple verbena and a sprig of mint.

If I do one thing this summer, it should be to convince you to put flowers in soda or juice cans.  Will you?

Painting Jam Jars: Yoga for my Inner Crafter

I couldn't have felt more relaxed as I dabbed dots of paint onto a collection of empty jam jars. Remember when I showed you how I was upcycling Bonne Maman jam jars in my craft room?  Well, I asked Kim to keep saving them for me (her husband eats a jar of raspberry jam a week!) as I had big plans for flower arranging.  

The process is easy. Use enamel paint from Michaels (be sure that the labeling says the baking process on it) and make dots with a Q-tip or small brush in a pattern that is pleasing to you.  Allow to air dry for 1 hour.  Place jars on a the baking rack in your oven, close the door and preheat to 350 (allowing the jars to heat up slowly with the oven). Bake for 30 minutes. Turn oven off and allow the jars to cool in the oven.  The jars should be now dishwasher safe! I don't foresee needing to wash vases in the dishwasher, but the claim gives me confidence that the design won't ship off.

Of course you should follow the actual instructions on the label of the paint you are using, but I wanted to explain it here so that you could see how perfectly easy it is.

Now my little army of vases are ready to be filled with flowers and given away.  I have tied matching ribbon around the rim of some of these and they look wonderful!  I spent an hour painting dots last night and I could feel my blood pressure going down.  This is yoga for my inner crafter.

Pretty Upcycled Vases: Keep Your Eye Out for Trims

Yes, the flowers are fabulous (Paul McCartney Rose, lilac-colored stock, yellow lantana and a pale pink gerbera daisy - all from the garden and pots on my patio) but it is the easy vase that I think makes a bouquet like this happen.  Flower arranging for the home shouldn't be stuffy or formal.  All you need is a few pretty blooms (notice how none of these flowers "match" or echo each other in color or shape, yet they still look beautiful together) and an appropriately size vase to display them in.

This little beauty is a Smuckers jam jar trimmed with a piece of Martha Stewart cardstock "border sticker."  The craft and scrapbook stores are loaded with long strips of paper that are often scalloped, gilded or embossed.  Why not choose one and wrap it around a jam jar (fasten with tape) for your own little touch?

I keep my sanity all Winter long by keeping my eye out for pretty touches to add to a jam jar vases - paper trim, ribbon, gems. The flowers I love so much will be blooming again before I know it.

If you have a collection of "ready-to-give" vases on hand, the more likely you will be to cut a little bouquet and bring it to a friend.  And you know they'll reuse the vase again and again.  Win-win!

Grocery Store Flowers Are Just As Pretty

We hosted a birthday party last weekend at my house and in addition to all of the traditional birthday elements (balloons, cake, candles), I wanted to add a few touches around the house to make it look pretty.

Little flower arrangements make me happy and I lucked out when I found a bundle of Snow White Cremon (a Dutch version of a Football Mum) in the grocery store floral department, marked down to $2 for the bunch!  Aren't they perfect?

I hung them on the knob of the open china cabinet in my family room, in a clear glass vase.  The vase is neat because it has a small hole in the glass near the top that you can thread a ribbon through and hang it.  You can see a similar vase here.  I own this type of vase in several styles (test tube, tear drop) and I love how they allow me to hang flowers on the wall or furniture. I highly recommend getting one for yourself - they are less than $5 and make quite a statement.

Beauty on a budget - another type of delight!

Flower Arranging: Vintage Canister is an Unexpected Vase

In the spring, summer, fall, I am flower driven. My interests collide when I can take a vintage oatmeal canister (my mom's find from an antique show) and fill it with flowers from the garden.  Could this arrangement be any prettier?

A melange of color and texture that gets your attention and holds it for a few beats.  When I see this arrangement, my brain ping-pongs around these thoughts:

• How can the colors of that hydrangea be so delicate? Pale celery green and puff pink together is perfect. 
• Why don't they make more pretty china canisters - clear plastic Oxo containers are just not beautiful.
• This grouping would translate beautifully to fabric. Where is Laura Ashley when I need her?
• I have to plant bellflower and more yarrow next year (then I write that in the Notes portion under May in my 2014 calendar.)

Looking at beautiful things is good for you.  Making a bouquet and seeing it every time you walk into the family room is even better.

Unusual Vases

Throughout the cold (It's 3 degrees here tonight!) and snowy Winter months, I like to sprinkle in flower arranging ideas to help keep my head in the game and preparing for Spring.  Now is the time to be on the lookout for unusual containers for flower arrangements.  Today I'm putting the spotlight on tin boxes (often filled with cookies!)

I made this pretty arrangement of peonies and roses in an aqua tin with a hinged lid.  A few years ago, Martha Stewart sold toffee and peppermint bark in these beautiful tins at Macy's.  I bought a few, devoured the candy and now I can use the beautiful aqua tins in different ways - to hold office supplies, as a casual jewelry box or as a vase!

I put an open gallon-size Ziploc bag in the tin, nestle a block of water-filled Oasis (that I cut to size) inside the bag and then tucked the extra edges of plastic bag down into the tin.  The Ziploc bag keeps the water and Oasis contained; the tin won't leak or rust and I can safely display the flower arrangement anywhere I want without fear of a watermark.

Lately I have seen a variety of cookies packaged in tin boxes at TJ Maxx and Homegoods.  These French butter cookies have been on the shelves recently and as you can see they come in yellow, orange or pink tins. 

2013 could be your year for exceptional flower arranging...you just need the proper supplies!

It's So You

"And I have to have one of these, because it is so you."

The woman talking was a new customer at an art show.  I had never met her before and I hadn't explained anything in my booth to her, yet she seemed to feel very connected to me.  Did she read my blog?  Did she own my books?  Sometimes when you are an artist and you "put yourself out there," it's impossible to know the relationship you have with someone in their mind.

It was the end of the show and she was buying an armful of my petite flower arrangements in my hand-painted jam jar vases.  

And then she selected one of the vases that showcased an ANA Pineapple Sage DELIGHT jam label (shown above).  I had decided to design my own jam labels as if I had a jam company, had eaten all of the jam and was now repurposing the jar.  It amused me to no end and it was indeed my favorite vase.  But how did she know that it was so "me?"  A fun and flattering mystery.

What makes something in your house so "you?"

Anticipation

I can hardly wait for my flowers to bloom.  I mean it, it has been a l-o-n-g time since I could go out to the garden and clip flowers for a spur of the moment bouquet like this and I miss it!  A lot.

The early surge of warm weather caused the flowering trees to bloom in March and encouraged most of the vegetation to be ahead of schedule.  I was just on the patio surveying the roses (you see my yellow "Graham Thomas" roses above, punctuated by a few orange nasturtiums) and my rose garden is in full leaf.
On Thursday night I am going to a lecture on roses at a local nursery and I am hoping to find out their opinion on how to proceed this Spring.  Should I start my monthly fertilizing early?  What about my fish spray and chemical bug repellent treatment?  I want to have another successful season of roses, so I am asking the professionals.  I also see tomorrow night as a way to appease my restless spirit.  I brought back lots of gorgeous soda pop cans from Hawaii and I want to make beautiful arrangements to show you!

Upcycle Frappaccino Bottles as Vases

Want to up cycle your Frappaccino bottles?  Turn them into vases that let you "show the love" to your friends and family.

My definition of up cycling is "to improve an item (that would otherwise be thrown away) into something that is better that the original."

I wanted to have lots of inexpensive (but cute!) vases that I could give my flowers away in.  A vase that my friends, in turn, could keep and reuse.  By up cycling a stash of empty Frappaccino bottles, I have created the perfect sturdy vase.  An added bonus to this project is that this "vase" fits perfectly in a car cup holder, so driving your bouquet to a party is a piece of cake!  

I used pink gloss enamel paint (make sure the paint bottle says it is for glass) from the craft store and painted hearts on with a Q-tip!  You can make simple and consistent hearts by following the same motion you do to make the letter "V" - it's easy.  Just keep your cotton swab loaded with paint and make your movements slow and steady.  Allow the vases to dry according to the instructions on the bottle and then you are ready to give them away.

The next time you are invited to a friend's house (for Bunko, book club or more), fill one of your heart-covered vases with a small bouquet from your garden.  Your hostess will feel the love. 

Jam Jars

Would you ever believe that a jam jar could work so beautifully as a vase? 

All I did was glue a length of vintage ribbon around a classic Smucker's jam jar and...Voila! 

You see, I was at the Ann Arbor Antiques Market and I happened to find a booth that was all vintage millinery items (gorgeous!).  The dealer sold her collection of ribbons and seam tape by the yard.  I bought a yard of the print that you see above, a spool of mauve thread and a card of buttons.  It was so much fun.

I am telling you this because now is the time to be rinsing out and saving your glass jam and salsa jars.  Spring will be here before you know it and you will need them to make some super cute vases.  Stay tuned.