DIY Faux Flower Arranging

One of the biggest expenses that I have in the DGD studio are flowers. Whenever a photo or vignette is missing that little “something,” it usually needs a natural element—either a potted plant or vase of flowers. The problem, of course, is that (1) flowers and potted plants are expensive, and (2) I have the worst luck with keeping said natural elements alive!

So I have since started to build a collection of arrangements and bud vases filled with—you guessed it—fake flowers. Although many of you might scoff at the idea (and I don’t blame you if you do), I was surprised to see just how easy it is to pull off—and here’s how you can, too.

• Faux budding flowers
• Faux greenery
• Faux filler flowers (think: baby’s breath-type flowers)
• Heavy duty wire cutters
• Oasis floral foam
• Butcher knife (for trimming the Oasis)
• Low, wide vase or bowl

Since I knew that this would be a bit of an investment (faux flowers are surprisingly expensive!), I waited until our local Michael’s Craft Store was hosting a silk flower sale—50% off, to be exact. While my armload of flowers would have cost something like $50 for everything on a normal day, I was able to grab them all for less than $30.

In terms of which flowers to choose, you’ll actually need far more greenery then you will large flowering stems. I used my critical and skeptical hubby as a sounding board as we wondered up and down the faux flower aisles—I would lift a stem to show John and then either put it in the cart or put it back on the rack depending on his shrug (i.e. “looks real enough”) or sneer (“looks fake”). In the end, we left with a bunch of greenery, a couple of stems that came with a dusting of white buds for filler and three large buds—the only ones in the entire store that looked and felt real-ish.

Next, I laid out all of the stems and began to trim them using my wire cutters. Back in the day, I would have barely cut the stems, thinking that they needed to be long, but thanks to this floral arranging workshop and working with geniuses like Elisha, of Petal Flower Co., I know that shorter is actually better—especially when working with faux flowers since the stems are tell-tale signs that they’re phony.

Next, use a sharp knife to slice off a section of Oasis and place it in the bottom of a low, round bowl or vessel. The vessel itself doesn’t need to be anything too special since this type of arrangement is low-lying and will spill over the edge of the bowl, making it almost invisible. Now, deep breath, and start placing your stems! Start with your greenery, trimming as needed so that the leafy part of the stems sit as close to the vessel as possible.

Make sure you have good variety between types of greenery to give it a natural look, and then go back in using the trimmed filler flower buds. To add to the greenery and provide even more texture, I also added the leaves from the big flower buds that I had laying off to the side. Finish by inserting the large buds across the top section of the arrangement, and then step back and evaluate. It took me several tries to get things just right, but I found that the more I played, the more natural it looked.

The best part about faux florals, of course, is the fact that they aren’t delicate at all in comparison to their legit counterparts. These can be wedged and crammed and cut to your heart’s content and won’t bruise or break. Certainly, nothing quite compares to the real deal, but faux floral arrangements are not evil and can save a lot of time and money in the long run.

What do you think? Would you give it a shot?

P.S. If you haven’t entered yet, we’re giving away TWO $50 fabric shopping sprees right here.