Fireworks Dried Flower Bouquet

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It’s time for a Blog Hop! What exactly is a Blog Hop? — A Blog Hop is a virtual get together because we can’t get together in real life– but we would if we could! Carol Landers from Bluesky at Home is hosting this patriotic hop along with 8 more bloggers. If you’re visiting us in order then you found me at Gathered in the Kitchen. I’ve known Stephanie a long time– and she always has great ideas!

This Firework Bouquet made from dried flowers is one of my favorites. Except for the spray paint, it’s free! And….. it will last forever if you keep it in a place where it won’t get smashed. Then you can use it over and over– you can put it in a different vase. Or, you can simply lay the pieces on top of a hutch or in that space above your kitchen cabinets.

[While this is about a patriotic theme, I have used this same idea for Christmas– in blush pink!]

More Patriotic Ideas

I had been wanting to do a dried hydrangea craft of some sort.  At first, I had no dried hydrangeas.   Last fall, the middle of the interstate median was full of them, but I knew it would be frowned upon if I stopped to gather a car full of them with vehicles whizzing past.   But I was tempted. : ).  Then one day when I parked at the library, I realized that there were some dried hydrangeas right in front of me.  I wasted no time going inside to ask if I could have them, and then if I could borrow some scissors. They gladly obliged and I was tickled to finally have the dried flowers.   Well, they were wet because it had rained a lot, but they dried out in the house in no time at all, without any mold or mildew problems.

After I acquired the hydrangeas, I didn’t know what I would do with them.  I waited all winter to spray paint them, just like I had waited with my Daylily Stems.

And then, it hit me— these would make a great Patriotic Bouquet!   I checked my spray paint collection, and was very happy to see that I already had red, white, and blue.  I even had Glitter, that I had bought for just such an occasion.  I hadn’t used the glitter yet. I also had a giant box, which helped contain the spray paint.  The weather was perfect– just the right temperature, and not windy.  Best of all, I was home alone and would not be interrupted!!

Before

Do you decorate with dried flowers? I much prefer dried flowers to artificial flowers or silk flowers. I had only a few dried bunches of hydrangeas.  So I carefully planned out how I would spray paint them.  I wanted to test each color of spray paint, so I used a small bunch to try out each color.

Then I sprayed the glitter spray paint on them.  I decided that the glitter paint made the white look dark, and more of a gray.  So when I spray painted my larger bunches, I only used glitter on red and blue.  Again, on the large bunches, I carefully planned out which bunch I would spray red, white, or blue, according to how I wanted to arrange the colors in my vase.  I don’t always plan out things in such detail, but in this case I am very glad I did and super glad how it turned out.  It would have been sad to realize that I wanted to arrange the colors differently, and not be able to since I would not want to re-spray paint any of the bunches (what a mess that would be!). Here are the large bunches next to a small bunch that I left unpainted.

I was happily spraying away when I realized that I had spray painted my rings.  Oops! I snapped a quick picture and then headed off to use nail polish remover on the rings.  That worked just fine until I could get to the jeweler’s to have them cleaned better.

I wanted something white to hold my dried flower stems in place. I decided to pop some unbuttered popcorn in my air popper for the vase filler.  I thought it fit the fireworks look of the flowers.   I used a large glass cookie jar for the vase.  I saw that some people also call these apothecary jars.

The popcorn held the flowers in place very easily.  Don’t the bunches look like bursts of fireworks?!

AFTER!!

I decided to put the little test bunches of dried hydrangeas in a little white milk vase for another small bouquet.

Do you like to use spray paint?  If you haven’t tried it yet, I encourage you to give it a try!  The only skill it requires is being able to push the button.
This project is a great way to use up leftover paint from a different project.  If you do that, then it’s a free project, and free is my favorite way to craft.

For another Patriotic idea using items found in nature, click on the picture below!

Now it is on to visit the next person. Laura at Everyday Edits is next and I’m sure you’re going to love her Fourth of July centerpiece!

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