DIY Brooch Bouquet

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

DIY BROOCH BOUQUET!!

Remember I mentioned my fiance's family visiting me this weekend? It was INCREDIBLY productive! One of the things I want to share with you today is the brooch bouquet we worked on. Not to sound overly sensitive (okay okay, I am), but it is so amazing how Jose's family AND community are a part of this wedding. What I mean is that Jose's Mom, Mama Nels, is very close to the women at her church. She mentioned my search for brooches in my crazy idea to create a brooch bouquet. They pitched in and donated some brooches! And just this feeling that I'm not only incorporating brooches I find at thrift stores, but brooches that belong to my fiance's family AND the people he grew up with -- is powerful to say the least.

I have felt the support of Jose's family beyond what I can describe. And when I first started putting together the brooch bouquet, Jose was very hesitant. He admitted he liked flowers better. But now that it has become this community collaboration -- it's more than just making a bouquet I saw online. I'll be walking down the isle with pieces of their contribution, tied in with my family's and Jose's.

Let me just throw out there that in the beginning I had some rough trials. And of course, I captured it on film for you ;)

See this mushroom?



My first idea was to use a half sphere styrofoam to stick the brooches into along with a square bottom that I would trim later for the base.

I then wrapped it in tissue paper to cover it up



Then I used these hair pins I bought at a thrift store to hold the half sphere and square (and for decoration)...



Like this


After that I took wire



And wrapped it around the brooches, then stabbed the bottom into the styrofoam.



Which turned into something like this


Not... ugly, but not exactly what would make Jose change his mind about a brooch bouquet.


Enter brainstorm. Mama Nels, Jasmine, and I thought about different ways to approach this. We went to Hobby Lobby and found our verdicts! This was originally going to be a test run but it turned out SO good that I had to share it with you because I think it's the perfect DIY for a brooch bouquet!


Must have: green pipe cleaners (77 cents a pack), floral wire (MUST have), and hot glue! The cherished hot glue :)



And THIS is what you do...

Hot glue your pin shut because you don't want it popping open later. BTW -- I also bought pretty jewelry pieces (not brooches), and just hot glued a brooch-backing on them. You can buy a pack of the things that secure a brooch at any craft store for pretty cheap.




Then bend your pipe cleaner in half (evenly) and slide it behind the brooch securer.


Then take one of the sides and make a knot around the brooch securer



Like this!



If you'd like (to feel secure) you can dab some hot glue on the brooch and knot. After that, take your floral wire and divide it in half like your pipe cleaner.



Bend the tip that will slide into the brooch like so...



Slide it in, then take a stem from the pipe cleaner and tie a knot around the loop of the floral wire



Hot glue those suckers! Remember, this is your BASE. It will support the brooch to stand upright like a flower.



So now that you have that glued, you should have two long floral wires and two shorter pipe cleaners. You will take BOTH pipe cleaners and begin to wrap it AROUND the 2 floral wires like so....



And your final product should look like this:



Ta-da! A strongly supported, upright brooch with a stem! With some help from family, you end up with these!!



We're not done yet, but I wanted to pull them together to give you an idea of what it kind of looks like...



I will be wrapping it with a teal cloth, and clearly do a better job than this :P



Actually, I almost forgot something important. At Hobby Lobby they sell a hand tied bouquet holder that looks like this.

That green stuff is styrofoam and I will be using this to stick my floral stems INTO and then arrange my "flowers"/brooches the way I want them with a sturdy base. It's only $5! Get it!

And that's it!! Mama Nels just told me that we have collected 5 more brooches from the women at Southside Baptist church. Those women are a BLESSING! They feel like family helping me out like they are. Huge thank you to them :)

Sooo, what do you think?! I would LOOOOOVE to hear if you're going to try this! Seriously! The best part is that Jose has now been swayed to "the other side." It just took a few women ... but it happened ;)

21 comments:

  1. Ok so I told you before that I was considering doing this but the only thing I'm concerned about is what my bridesmaids will carry. What are your bridesmaids carrying?

    Aaaand, great work btw...you make it look so easy ;)

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  2. OH! I got so caught up in the bouquet that I forgot to mention anything about your wreck! I'm glad your ok and I'm also sorry about your rib. Hopefully it'll heal sooooon! You're in my prayers :)

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  3. Jenn -- hehe, thank you :) I'm waiting on the x-ray results to confirm the chest pain. It might end up being an inflammatory cartilage?

    About the bouquet -- I was thinking of making small -flower- bouquets for my bridesmaids out of the red garden roses I posted before. I think as long as the bridesmaids aren't carrying a HUGE flower bouquet, it will still look good with flowers for them. Also, keeping them the same color (not too many mixed flower colors) so that it all looks uniformed (red bouquets + brooch bouquet for the bride).

    Thank you! Though I promise it's relatively simple once you get the supplies. As soon as we started playing with the flower stems I was like "AHA! THIS is what I needed!" And of course lots of hot glue ;)

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  4. Hey Ale!!
    So sorry to hear about your wreck but thank goodness you are okay. And also....take care of that rib!! If the doc says to rest, you rest!! The bouquet is coming out amazing!! I have never seen that!! Your creativity never ceases to amaze me!! ;)

    JC

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  5. Jessica -- how cute and motherly -- I wouldn't expect anything less from you :) I knoooow. I have a problem with "resting" but once I get the x-rays, I will take it very serious. Promise!

    HNBride-- thank you! Though it wasn't exactly my original idea, I was inspired by a post on Ruffled. I'm hoping this will help other brides who want to give it a shot!

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  6. Oh no! I hope you are okay!! Also, I absolutely adore this bouquet - it's so elegant!

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  7. I can't believe you did this!! It looks soooo professional, like something out of a DYI book!!!

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  8. I forgot to mention this, but I hope you and your rib are feeling better!!! Sorry about the accident.

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  9. i'm on project wedding too. and adore the idea of the brooch bouquet... so i linked to your post from my blog. :) congratulations & best wishes!!!

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  10. Great job! I am wanting to tackle on of these so my question is...what was wrong with the foam core and why didn't it work?? Thanks for sharing your tutorial!

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  11. Hey there! Thank you! :)

    The foam core was horrible. The problem is that some brooches are TOO heavy for it. I, like most people, thought I needed a sphere shape to attach my brooches to in order to give it that "bouquet" look. So I would wind a LOT of metal wiring around the brooch, then stab it INTO the foam. The brooch was *not* secure enough AND there was still GAPS between the brooches.

    That was the biggest problem: the gaps. Trust me, taking floral wire plus some pipe cleaners will create SUCH a sturdy base and make it look like an actual flower. Once you gather them, they start looking more and more like a bouquet. Link me to your blog! I'd love to see how it turns out!!

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  12. So great to see this just as I'm about to try to put my own together! I'd been playing around with a styrofoam cone & stiff jewelry wire, so glad to know I'm on a similar track. I've been keeping a blog about the pieces I've received from family & friends - when I get around to making it, I'll post that, too! Check it out: http://mybridalbouquet.wordpress.com/

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  13. WOW..Thank you so much for the DIY lesson on making the brooch bouquet. I saw the idea in a bridal magazine & wanted to make it myself. I was thrilled when I came across your blog. THANK YOU. I'll let you know how it turns out.
    P.S. You rock!!!

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  14. Thanks a lot for posting this page, I am just getting started on planning to make a brooch bouquet for myself, I will definitely use your tips!

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  15. No way! You're a genius! This is gorgeous and I'm going to start working on mine TODAY! Thank you for generously posting this tutorial, even when you had such an awful day (I trust you're all better now). I'm so inspired!
    ~ jauntygirl

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  16. thank u so much iwill b doin this for my wedding in april i just love it, the perfect heirloom

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  17. Yay!! So glad I could help you guys!! How exciting! Link me to any photos of your final product! :)

    p.s. I'm transferring all my posts to my photoblog since I'm merging my blogs into one!

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  18. WOW..Thank you so much for the DIY lesson on making the brooch bouquet. I saw the idea in a bridal magazine & wanted to make it myself. I was thrilled when I came across your blog. THANK YOU. I'll let you know how it turns out.
    P.S. You rock!!!

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  19. Ok so I told you before that I was considering doing this but the only thing I'm concerned about is what my bridesmaids will carry. What are your bridesmaids carrying?

    Aaaand, great work btw...you make it look so easy ;)

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  20. Hello!

    I am an editor of AllFreeDIYWeddings.com, a DIY wedding site that's still a work in progress. We're gathering content for when the website launches.
    I'd love to feature this tutorial with full credit to you. I would feature one photo and a link back to the tutorial on your blog.

    AllFreeDIYWeddings.com is part of Prime Publishing, and we publish 19 cooking and crafting web sites. We have over 3.5 million active e-mail subscribers and about 10 million page views per week. You can learn more about us at www.primecp.com.

    Please let me know if you are interested in being featured, and I'd be happy to link up to some of your projects! My email is: etimmons@primecp.com

    Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you!

    ReplyDelete

 

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