Make This Heart-Felt Arrangement for Mother's Day!

Thank you all for bearing with me this week - lots of goodies on the way!  Here is a great arrangement to make for Mother's Day, a wedding centerpiece or other special occasion.  I actually made this for my sister-in-law's family when her grandmother passed away.  Unfortunately, I only have the one picture.

You'll need a dozen roses (I used 6 deep red and 6 bright pink), a dozen carnations, one package of compact-headed button flowers or straw flowers, 3-5 large flat leaves of whatever green you like (to cover the back and sides).  Our local farm market has roses by the stem usually for $9.99 a dozen and single stem carnations by the stem for super cheap (oh, your not supposed to use the word cheap right? ummm...I mean an excellent price if you are on a limited budget...lol).  You also need 2 blocks of floral foam, about 5 long wooden skewers, and I found a dish at floral supply shop that was a low flat dish the perfect size to stand a floral block vertically and had stakes on the bottom to hold the block in place.  You can also accessorize with a cute little bird like my dove, butterflies, or the jeweled picks that are pretty widely available now.



Now soak your floral block in water while you remove the greens from the stems of all the flowers.  Trim all the stems down to about 2 - 2 1/2 inches long - cut at an angle so you have a sharp point on each stem to help pierce the block.

Stand your first floral block on end vertically in your dish.

Using a sharp knife, cut about 1/3 off the end of the second block.

Put the 2/3 piece horizontally on top of the first piece.

Then put the 1/3 piece on top of that.  Now use your skewers to secure all the layers together by piercing from the top down.

Use your knife to trim the sides until you have the top of the heart shape - it doesn't have to be perfect as your flowers are going to do the work for you.  The red lines in this diagram are the rough shape I trimmed.

Starting in the center of the widest part of your heart - place your three red roses tightly together so they form a heart shape.  Place your 6 pink roses evenly in a rough heart shape.  Fill in with the carnations until your larger heart shape is complete.

You will have 3 red roses and a few carnations left and these can be placed around the bottom of the arrangement.

Now you will need your large flat leaves to cover the back and sides of the arrangement.  Your button or straw flowers should also be trimmed to about 2 - 2 1/2 inches long with a point.  They should have very stiff stems and be of decent size.  Take your flat leaves and pierce them with your knife every inch down the stem - these will be the holes for your "buttons".  Use your leaf to cover the back of the arrangement (you may need 1-3 depending on the size of your leaves) with the flat edge of the leaf at the bottom of the arrangement and the tip of the leaf wrapping over the top of the floral block.  Insert your "button" flowers every inch to hold the leaves in place.  Do the same thing along the two sides of the arrangement to cover the sides.

Use the rest of your "button" flowers to fill in the uncovered space on the front of your arrangement and any other holes were the floral block may show.  Add your bling and its done!  If you want to preserve your arrangement, let the floral block dry out and keep in an area out of direct sunlight until the flowers completely dry.  It might look difficult but really only took about a half hour to make this so don't be intimidated!

Now, let me know what you think!