Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Cinnamon bark base brown velvet wrist corsage
- 22 October 2025
For this design I am using my favourite wrist corsage base... an upcycled "inner ring" from an empty floral tape roll. The full Tutorial is below this post. I am focussing here on the cinnamon and floral ingredients added to update the design.
Cover the plastic ring with a dark chocolate brown velvet ribbon.
The benefit of using velvet ribbon is that the velvet is so thick and luxurious that we can easily spread a bit of fabric glue around the edges to pinch it closed for a neat finish...
I am simply fold my brown velvet ends closed and over but you might want to knot it or add a bow, whatever is more your style.
Design note: instead of simply boiling the cinnamon bark to open it I make a simmer pot. I slowly boil the cinnamon so that our apartment smell delicious... like our absolute favourite coffee shop on a cozy autumn visit.
This is my Autumn simmer pot recipe: I place a cup of coffee, cinnamon sticks, a handful of dark chocolate buttons and the tiniest pinch of nutmeg in my simmer pot. Fill the pot with water and simmer on the lowest heat. Top the water up as needed.
Anyway...
When you boil the cinnamon bark it slowly unrolls and becomes more pliable.
Set aside the biggest cinnamon bark strip for the corsage platform and rip the other sections into strips for the bark leaves.
Cut the cinnamon bark into leaf shapes...
Score the vein lines deep into the still wet cinnamon bark leaves.
Design note: I found a chopstick works best. It is not too sharp and creates a deep and smooth line.
Your cinnamon platform and leaves are ready to dry before designing with it.
Now remember, the cinnamon wants to curl. It is its natural state so it will need help to set flatter. I weigh the cinnamon bark down with small vases so help set it into the shape I needed.
For instance, a glass water tube is exactly the kind of cradling curl I wanted for my flowers to nestle in. For the leaves I could absolutely simply let them dry flat under the bases of some heavy bud vases but I thought...
Well... every Wednesday morning (Vancouver time), I send out a Design Note the moment the newest Design is ready with a few notes on what makes this week’s design remarkable. These are the kind of "tips" you won’t find anywhere else. This week, I show you how I added curves to my cinnamon bark leaves to make them look more natural. The sign-up is just below.
When the cinnamon bark is completely dry glue the platform to the velvet corsage base.
You can glue the cinnamon on top of the ribbon and through or to the side, this really is where you can get creative. I have linked a few alternative design options for you below the post if you are looking for more inspiration. For my design I want the velvet to drape over the cinnamon to create even more coziness....
Glue in your floral details. For my design I am using dried strawflowers from my balcony garden. You can also use any fresh flowers that last well in body flower designs.
And if you want to add a hidden water source I have an absolute favourite spill proof tip for you in my book. It is one of my all time favourite design solutions that I have come up with over the years. Book readers you can find the instructions on how to make a spill proof hidden water source for body flowers How To on page 303
For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Design your flowers to nestle snugly on the cinnamon base layer. Make sure they do not simply line up (unless that is what you are going for) create movement by placing the dried flowers as if they are having a cozy chat in a coffee shop. This one facing this way... these two turned to that one... that one looking up... that one... you get the idea, right? The flowers should tell your story and never ever look like they are desperately trying to escape your design.
Next, I draped my ribbon over the flowers but lift the ribbon slightly so that there is a gap and the flowers are still visible under the ribbon when looked at from the side. Secure the ribbon to the bark base with a small drop of hot glue.
Glue in the cinnamon leaves to look like they dropped onto the design.
Glue in a few burgundy Passiflora tendrils...
And a few seedpods. I love the snapdragon pods this time of year.
Carefully nestle the pods in to cozy up to the flowers.
And I add a few dew drop crystals to add sparkle to the velvet and the cinnamon.
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