A Birthday Corsage

Okay lovelies. Today I am going far off the beaten path and showing you how to make a corsage. I know, I know, it's so not at all decor related, but I love to play around with flowers and I have done flowers for a handful of weddings and special occassions, so I wanted to share. Just a disclaimer that I do not claim to be a floral expert! I do my best, though!

This weekend is Mr. Mel's grandmothers 75th birthday. Her kids (all 12 of them) are throwing her a birthday tea and asked if I would do some centrepieces and a birthday corsage for her. I LOVE Granny, she is an amazing woman, so I was only too happy to help make her day extra special!

I will show you the finished centrepieces next week but, for now, here is how I made her birthday corsage.

You'll need:

• floral wire
• floral tape
• wire snips
• sharp scissors or floral sheers
• a corsage pin (you can also use a regular pin with a round top)
• flowers and filler
• ribbon

Because Granny is seriously the brightest personality I have ever met, I wanted to use fun flowers for her corsage. I chose Gerber Daisies, and will use baby's breath as filler.

I started by cutting the stems to the desired length (1" - 2" depending on their placement). I cut two 4" - 4 1/2" lengths of floral wire. I inserted the floral wire through the daisy stem so they criss-crossed each other.

Next I bent the wires so they were facing down. This will allow you to bend your stem slightly so the bloom faces forward from the corsage.

Next step is to cut your filler to short lengths and prepare any ribbon accents that will be used. Ribbon is a great accent, and I use it alot in flowers. For this corsage, I simply wrapped a very narrow ribbon around my fingers and then tied it off with a short piece of floral wire.

Great! Now we get to put it all together! This can be a finicky process, but once you get the hang of the floral tape, you are off to the races! Floral tape is not sticky, but it sticks to itself - does that make any sense? The trick is to stretch it slightly to get a nice tight wrap.

I start with my main flower (the one with two wires in it). I wrap it with tape from the bottom up, inserting my filler and ribbon as I go. Last step is to curl the bottom. I use small pliers and spin it to get a nice ringlet.

Stick the pin in the back and you have a lovely corsage for the birthday girl!

Thanks for visiting and have a Happy Easter!