Make an Easy Orchid Bouquet

We adorned these orchids with a cloud of petite butterfly hair clips to add a sparkling, sweet touch to the bouquet. Look for unusual and inexpensive baubles at discount jewelry shops and department stores.

 

We used orchids and montebretia in our bouquet for their graceful flower shapes and long-lasting qualities, but you can use any flower you like -- the process is the same. Clip spent flowers and leaves from the lower 8 inches of the flower stems. These clean stems will serve as the bouquet handle.

 

Hot-glue each jewel to the tip of an 18-inch-long piece of thick-gauge florist's wire. Tightly wrap each wire with black florist's tape. Create 8 to 10 wired jewels. Next, arrange the bouquet. Gather the flowers in one hand. Tuck the jewels in the bouquet with your free hand. Once the jewels are in place, tie the stems and wired jewels together with black florist's tape. Beginning about 3 inches above the tips of the stems, tightly wrap tape up the length of the stems to create a 3-inch-wide handle.

 

Finish the bouquet with a ti-leaf handle wrap. Use scissors to trim 2 inches off the stem end of a ti leaf. Wrap the leaf around the handle, covering the black tape. Secure it in place with hot glue. Top the leaf with a sparkling jewel or brooch.