I had tissue paper from Christmas, so I thought I'd begin with that tutorial. The bouquet shown is really pretty and allows for different shades of purple/pink, but most of the time tissue paper only comes in one shade of red. So I thought I'd mix in a few smaller white tissue paper flowers. I went on a Micheal's run to acquire all the other necessary tools to make all the different types of flowers.
Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of me making the flowers but let me tell you, it was a mess. If you have ever worked with floral tape, you know how sticky it is. The glue comes off on your fingers and you stick to everything. Some of the flowers were easy and simple to make, like the tube flowers and the curly flowers. Unfortunately, these were the smaller flowers and I needed more of the bigger ones. I made enough to get a small bouquet together to show my mom and sister for their opinions.
I wasn't thrilled with how they whole thing looked and neither was my mom. But my sister thought they looked great and she really wanted me to use them. I think she was thinking there would be more care into making the ones for the wedding, but these took so long to make and I could only make a few an evening to save my sanity. I was really hoping I'd stumble upon an even better and easier idea.
The next thing to try were the coffee filter rose tutorial. I watched the video tutorial on the Martha Stewart website and purchased some coffee filters. The fact that the coffee filters are so much more sturdy than the tissue paper was a plus because with glue on my fingers, I wasn't ripping it. I traced the template onto the filters and cut enough out for one rose. When I began assembling them, it was so much fun and so easy. I had made my first rose in no time.
I had purchased red crayola watercolor paint and painted the rose like the tutorial said. It came out pink. So I went to the university bookstore and bought two different red watercolor paints from the art section. These also came out pink. The pink roses just would not do. My colors are Red, Black, and White. I had to get these roses red.
I began brainstorming different ways of dying materials. The only logical solution I could come up with was to use RIT dye. I discovered they make liquid RIT dye and bought Red and Wine because I didn't know which would fit better. It turned out neither were the right color. The red was too light and the wine was purple/brown. So I decided to add a little bit of the wine to the red to darken and deepen the shade and watered it down. I dipped the rose into the dye and then hung it to dry for a few days. Woala! It was a miracle! Red roses.
Once the rose was dry the petals were stiffened. I used a bamboo skewer to separate the petals and then the curl the edges like the tutorial says. By hanging the roses upside down the dry, the extra dye runs off the tips of the petals causing them to be slightly darker. This is similar to what they have you do in the tutorial. I took these pictures at work, and I worked on making roses at work (shhh don't tell my boss.) My boss actually walked in on me doing this in the lab and he suggested isolating some rose oil and spritzing them so they smelled like real roses. Everyone who walked by my desk commented on how they thought they were real and were really surprised they were made from coffee filters.
To streamline the process I trace as many petals onto one filter as possible and then cut a total of 3-4 filters at once. Then, with all the petals grouped into single rose piles, I begin assembling them. I can knock out ~12 per sitting and then dye them all at once. This way, I can get roses to match in color by being in the same batch.
I can get about 36 roses per 100 filters. The box of 100 filters at Kroger costs ~$4. This isn't ideal and supposedly you can get 400 filters for $4 at Costco, but I no longer have a membership there and Sam's doesn't carry #4 filters. As of right now, I think I have enough roses to make my bouquet and the 5 BM bouquets.
All are personal photos unless otherwise noted. I just want to give a shout out to Martha Stewart.com for posting awesome tutorials which I have watched over and over again.
Am I crazy for taking on this project? Maybe. But would I do it again? Probably.
How about you?
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