Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Fluffy Seed Snowflake Sparkle
- 22 November 2023
- click to send Christine a smile
To start the snowflake, overlap two bunny tail grass blooms and secure it with hot glue.
Design note: you can treat the grass blooms with hairspray or fixative to make sure it stays together. But I found I rather like the natural fluffiness in this design. The tape also mostly kept it together so if you prefer you can skip this step and use the snowflake as a way to keep the seeds in the star shape overwinter to plant out in spring.
Glue on two more fluffy blooms to create an arrow.
Glue six arrows to start the snowflake.
Pair up the arrows by gluing the tips together.
Pair up the pairs by connecting the tips of the next seed bloom...
To shape the seed blooms into a garland.
Hmmm... this is nice as well! You can always just continue to shape the seed blooms into a long garland. But wait... let's get back to the snowflake...
Connect all the fluffy pairs to shape the basic outline of the snowflake.
Glue in another seed bloom to extend the arrow inwards...
All the way around the snowflake.
Glue a cluster of three fluffy seed blooms...
Secure the cluster in the middle of the snow flake with the smallest possible amount of hot glue.
Glue in two more seed blooms to the tip of the snowflake to make the branches sprout out at the ends.
Glue in seed blooms to all the branches of the snowflake.
now the fun part starts... give your snowflake a personality. Add in a few more fluffy bunny tails to the middle, if you want to.
... or give it a few more branches. Or fluff it up with a second layer. Whatever is your own style. If you want to read more about developing your own style of designing have a look at my book:
The Effortless Floral Craftsman
You can even add a double layer of fluffy bunny tail seed blooms...
And a few bits of curled grass.
It is rather tricky to add the grass deep into the fluffy bunny tail seed bloom. It tends to get stuck in the fluff making it difficult to position just so... This week in our email I show you how to cut and glue the grass bits so that they are exactly where you want them without ruining the fluffy seeds. You can sign up for our Wednesday email below this post. I send out the email the moment the design is ready for you to view and I always add a bit that I find interesting or that I learned so that you can learn even more as i go along. If you have questions or a comment or even if you want to say hi... reply to the email. I would love to hear from you.
Tape a grid over a display container. If you have been following along for a while you know by now my twist is to tape the grid sticky side up so that I can have that extra bit of grip to position my delicate floral details. This is especially great for this design.
See the Tutorial below for more detailed instructions.
Position the seed bloom snowflake so that it secures to the grid.
Wiggle the container a bit to make sure it is secure. Tap down any parts that is not yet secure.
Pour water through the grid to fill the display container.
Next we add our carpet of snow... Remove the foliage from the stem of your alyssum flowers and set it in the water to continue to hydrate.
Place the flowers to look like it was scattered every here and there. Be careful not to cluster the flowers so that you still have just a dusting of flowers.
... and as always, I finish the design with some dew drop crystals.
See the Tutorial below for more detailed instructions on how to do this without breaking apart the delicate seed bloom.
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Tutorials
Tape a grid over a vase to keep the floral details in place
It's sometimes difficult to place a tiny crystal or bead exactly where you want it.
so many techniques rolled into one rather pretty tulip nest. Perfect to celebrate new beginnings: Spring and my book birthday... and my online workshop!
Making a rose even more roselike by enhancing its rosy-ness.
Suspend flowers with an almost invisible taped grid
Done in no time design... and it is rather refreshing to make.
Capture Spring for just a little bit longer by sticking blossoms down, in place.
Crystal clear floral design for winter styling
Connect twigs with puddles of artificial snow to craft a winter armature for your flowers.
Artificial snow covered cardboard mittens to add to a winter themed design.
Turn the tried and trusted tape over the vase grid idea sticky side out... and adding artificial snow for a Christmas in Winter design solution.
Use a cardboard shape to craft a simple wire Christmas star
Glue gypsophila sticks, flowers and dandelion seeds into a star shape
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