Little Red Wagon Floral Arrangement Part 3

I am using the Fiskars Corner Punch "Flower" OR Fiskars has a border punch that uses a daisy in the design, either on works.  www.franticstamper.com, under the manufacturer Punch Bunch, mini punches, there is an inexpensive daisy punch we can use, too.

This is a close-up of the border punch daisy design.

I am going to use a flat coffee filter, it has a slight texture that I like.

Plain white copy paper is just as good.

Use acrylic craft paint to paint the paper yellow for the yellow daisies.  Use a yellow daisy for the color, real or from a catalog, or maybe a silk flower.  I just used Apple Barrel Yellow, that's what I had on hand.  Paint both sides of the paper.  Let the paper dry before you punch.

Whether you start with green copy paper or white copy paper you are going to paint it green with a leaf color acrylic craft paint you like.  You can get fancy and paint one side of the paper one shade of green and the other side of the paper another shade of green.  You can make two different colors of foliage in the arrangement if you want.  For this arrangement I used Delta's Seminole Green, it's a good all around green.  Let the paper dry completely before you punch.

If you have trouble punching the coffee filters, place them between copy paper and then punch.
To save paper I cut my paper into strips and feed it into the punch to only punch the shape I want.
Punch 24 to 30 of each color for the daisies.
I am going to use the green paddle wire, 26 gauge.  Cut the wires 2" long.

From the painted green paper, punch about 30 1/8" holes.

Bend the tip of each wire about a 1/16" to a 90 degree angle.  I just put my wire at the the very tip of my needle nose pliers and bent the angle.

Pierce the center of your calyxes with a large pin on the craft foam.  To keep the circle from folding up around the pin, hold the circle down with your tweezers while piercing.

Thread the calyx onto the wire and push up to the bend and glue the calyx flat against the bend.  Use tacky glue.  Stick your wires into some floral foam for the calyxes to dry.

It takes 2 punched shapes for each daisy.  Use tacky glue to glue 2 shapes together, offsetting the petals.  Make at least a dozen of each color.

This shows all of the daisies ready to be glued to the top of the wire and calyxes.

Put a dab of tacky glue on the top of the calyx.

Press the calyx onto the back of the daisy.  Replace back into the floral foam to dry.

I use floral foam for the center of the daisy.  This isn't Styrofoam, this is floral foam, it is soft and absorbs water.  Crumble and tear up a small amount.

Apply a dab of tacky glue to the center of daisy.

Using your tweezers, mound a small bit of the crumbled floral foam onto the center of the daisy on the glue.  Do this to the rest of the daisies.  Let dry.

Paint the center of the white daisies yellow and the center of the yellow daisies brown.  Ruffle the tips of the petals with a pin or your tweezers.

On to Part 4. . . . . . . .

Little Red Wagon Floral Arrangement Part 4

Now we are going to make some filler leaves.  I am using the Fiskars corner punch "Leaves".  I don't think it's available anymore, that's a shame, it was a good punch.  www.franticstamper.com, under Punch Bunch, has some good punches for filler leaves.  Some are leaves on stems and some are fern-like.

Whatever you use you will need to do a little shaping to the leaves.  Dampen some paper towel and lay the leaves onto it.  Let the leaves absorb some of the dampness.  We don't want them wet, just a little damp.

Transfer a leaf to the craft foam and use a stylus to run down the center and out to the lobes of the leaf and curl the lobes a bit.  The leaves don't need a lot of shaping, just don't leave them flat.  Let the leaves dry.

I cut green paddle wire, 26 gauge at 2 inches in length.  I'm making about a dozen filler leaves.

I tried Crafter's Pick, The Ultimate! glue for gluing the leaves on and I was very satisfied with it.  Glue the wire to the back of the leaves.



Now, we finally have all the components made for the arrangement.  Every time I do all of this flower making I admire the miniature flower artists even more!

Before you start arranging make sure everything as had a chance to dry.  We are going to be manipulating the wires around and it gets frustrating if you have things falling off, (don't ask).

This is a triangular shaped arrangement.  The main stems establish how high and how wide the arrangement will be.  The height is established by the height of the container.  The little wagon should be between 1/2 to 5/8 inches high (13mm to 16mm).  The height of the arrangement should be 1 1/2 times the height of the container.  So we are talking 3/4" to almost an inch high (19 to 25mm) for the finished arrangement.   In the full size arrangement it looks like they started with carnations to determine the height and width.  We will do the same.
Try to have your container at eye level when you start.  Use what you can to raise the container off your table.  Secure the container so it won't move around.
Believe me, I am not a floral arranger.  I copy and do the best I can.  So we will be going at this together.

Start with a carnation.  The height of the arrangement is going to be 3/4" to about an inch depending on the height of your wagon.  I am making my arrangement 1 inch tall or a bit taller.  I held my carnation up to the wagon with a ruler and snipped the extra off.  Dip the end of the stem into glue and insert into the center of the wagon.

Next, we are going to define the triangle using the carnations.  Trim your wires to make the width of the arrangement you want.  You can take out the wire and trim again until you like it.

When you are satisfied, dip the end of the stem into glue and reinsert it.

The instruction books say we "fill in" with the other flowers.  O.K., let's fill in with the yellow and white daisies.  Not too many, we want to add more carnations and the filler leaves.
I put 3 daisies into the arrangement, each side.

I put a carnation in the center of the daisy trio, each side.

I added a daisy at each end of the wagon, each side.

I've started adding filler leaves, I bent some of the wires on the filler leaves to hang over the edge of the wagon.  I have filled in with a couple of more daisies and a carnation bud.
I don't know if you can see it, but I made a little yellow bow for the arrangement and inserted it off center.





I hope you have had fun making this arrangement and I hope this gives you a start on making more.


Have fun, expand on it, make it better, just keep making minis! ! !       Kris