Being a bit untraditional I didnt want paper escort cards. So rocks it is! It will defintely be heavy to bring to the hall, but well worth it for individuality!
Gisele Bundchen by Taschen
4 years ago
Friday, March 20, 2009
Bridal Shower Favors
So I set out on a search for what we could use as a favor for my bridal shower. My mom and sister are hosting, so I already knew there would be a slew of desserts... so we decided against a food as a favor. I came across the cutest flower pens in mini-flower pots online for anywhere between $3.50-$4.00 each. Since I already had experience in making the flower pens and putting them in vases for my mom and grandma, I figured I was fully capable of doing this for alot less money!!
The next thing you will want to do is clip the flowers with your wire sheers leaving about an inch of stem (my picture shows more stem, but later I had to trim off more, so start with leave 1 inch).
There is typically extra plastic around the stem so you will want to cut around that plastic (but not through the internal stem) so that way you thin out the stem.
Once the outer stem is removed it will look like the yellow flower on the left. Removing the outer portion is important so the flower will fit inside the pen.
Next fill the little pots with clay. I went with green, which was a bad idea (scroll down). I am sure you could use white clay, but you want to go with non-drying clay. The clay is what will hold the pen up-right. Fill the pot about half way full, the over full pots didnt work out well. This may be the time you want to put on gloves.
I look like Alphaba! I didnt wear gloves, and I turned green. It was so hard to get off of my hands, I had to scrub my hands with a brush... ouch! I also had to clean all the green off the outside of the pots... white clay may be best, or orange if you are wearing gloves, to match the pots.
After scrubbing my self, I decided to put on gloves so that way while touching the green I wouldnt get more on myself. The next step is to hot glue the moss onto the clay. Some of the moss didnt stick, you want to do enough glue to hold and a thin layer of moss, and then more glue and more moss. Make sure to pull apart the moss prior to trying to put it in the pots, its very thick and tangled inside the bag.
Here is a pot with the moss in it. Dont press to hard either, I broke a pot doing that. Oops
See how the pen sticks. (Good idea to use a regular pen not wrapped nice and make "pilot holes") the clay is sticky and can actually pull the ink barrel out of the pen...
Nate made a garden while I glued.
I bought white, pink, and yellow ribbon, each to match the flower colors. I also purchased these cute metal favor tags, they are made by wilton, it was 1.99 for 12 of them. The ribbon is 5/8 inch thick it was a bit difficult to thread through the little hole, but after tying the bow I cut the edges of the ribbon to remove the fraying. The bow gets tied over where the tape ends so it covers it up and can not be seen.
The first finished product (except I didnt quite center it in the middle of the pot on accident)
About half way done with tying all of them. I started in the morning and as I took breaks from homework I would do another step of the project. So its very easy to make 50 of theses all in one sitting.
SUPPLIES
- 1 1/2 inch clay pots (craft store)
- Artificial flowers- in this case gerber daisys
- Clay
- Fake moss
- Hot glue gun (with a full pack of glue sticks)
- Ball point pens
- Wire sheers
- 5/8 inch ribbon in matching color to flowers
- Thank you favor tags
- Green floral tape
I decided to not buy the single gerber daisys but rather found them in little bouquets of 8, they were $5.99 and 50% off at Michaels (Hobby Lobby and Michaels typically have 50% off fake flowers, so check for sales!)
I bought yellow, pink, and white flowers to match the theme of my bridal shower. This is the bouquet in tact.
The next thing you will want to do is clip the flowers with your wire sheers leaving about an inch of stem (my picture shows more stem, but later I had to trim off more, so start with leave 1 inch).
There is typically extra plastic around the stem so you will want to cut around that plastic (but not through the internal stem) so that way you thin out the stem.
Once the outer stem is removed it will look like the yellow flower on the left. Removing the outer portion is important so the flower will fit inside the pen.
The next step is to prepare the pens. I used Papermate Eagle brand. You will want to take
all the backings off like you see in the picture. Make sure you get a pen in which the backs come off. Against my better judgment (THE DENTAL HYGIENIST) Nate used his TEETH to remove all 50 of these! I would personally recommend NOT using your teeth and using pliers instead... you dont need to chip a front tooth prior to your wedding!!!
all the backings off like you see in the picture. Make sure you get a pen in which the backs come off. Against my better judgment (THE DENTAL HYGIENIST) Nate used his TEETH to remove all 50 of these! I would personally recommend NOT using your teeth and using pliers instead... you dont need to chip a front tooth prior to your wedding!!!
Once all of the pen caps are removed and all the flowers are clipped and outer stems removed, it is time to heat up the hot glue gun. I put down an old magazine which was helpful, because I would wipe the stringy glue onto the pages and once they got too junky with glue I would flip the page to a clean set! Much better than just putting newspaper down!
With your glue gun you have to work quick, be careful not to burn yourself on the tip or on the glue! Place glue all around the entire stem of the flower and inside the back of the pen, twirl the pen in so it spreads the glue around the whole stem. There will be a glob of glue at the top, let the glue cool for a few seconds once its not too hot to touch (but not set) spread out the glue so there isnt such a large bubble, you can circle it around the base of the pen a bit.
You can somewhat see the glue on the top of the pen, which is fine because it will be covered up with the floral tape later on. Finish glueing all flowers. Make sure the stem is not so long that it is pushing down on ink holder, it will push out of the barrell.
The pile of half way done!
The next step is to wrap the pens with green floral tape so that the pen becomes the "stem" of the flower. I used a little over 1 roll for 50 pens, so that can give you a judge always buy a little extra and if you dont open it just return it!
Floral tape isnt like regular tape, it is not just sticky, you have to stretch it a tiny bit to get it to stick to itself. Then it becomes quite sticky. Start at the tip of the pen so that way where the tape ends it will be at the top under the flower and less noticeable. I leave the black showing a little so people can know easily what color the pen is. You will want to wrap up at an angle.
This is half way up the pen. Slightly overlap the tape so there are no openings.
Once you reach the top of the pen wrap the floral tape around the glue a few times. Stretch the tape and pull to break it off of the roll, and press down firmly to secure the tape. Wrap all of the pens. When you are done rub them between your hands to help remove extra stickiness.
Next fill the little pots with clay. I went with green, which was a bad idea (scroll down). I am sure you could use white clay, but you want to go with non-drying clay. The clay is what will hold the pen up-right. Fill the pot about half way full, the over full pots didnt work out well. This may be the time you want to put on gloves.
I look like Alphaba! I didnt wear gloves, and I turned green. It was so hard to get off of my hands, I had to scrub my hands with a brush... ouch! I also had to clean all the green off the outside of the pots... white clay may be best, or orange if you are wearing gloves, to match the pots.
After scrubbing my self, I decided to put on gloves so that way while touching the green I wouldnt get more on myself. The next step is to hot glue the moss onto the clay. Some of the moss didnt stick, you want to do enough glue to hold and a thin layer of moss, and then more glue and more moss. Make sure to pull apart the moss prior to trying to put it in the pots, its very thick and tangled inside the bag. 
Here is a pot with the moss in it. Dont press to hard either, I broke a pot doing that. Oops
See how the pen sticks. (Good idea to use a regular pen not wrapped nice and make "pilot holes") the clay is sticky and can actually pull the ink barrel out of the pen...
Nate made a garden while I glued.
I bought white, pink, and yellow ribbon, each to match the flower colors. I also purchased these cute metal favor tags, they are made by wilton, it was 1.99 for 12 of them. The ribbon is 5/8 inch thick it was a bit difficult to thread through the little hole, but after tying the bow I cut the edges of the ribbon to remove the fraying. The bow gets tied over where the tape ends so it covers it up and can not be seen.
The first finished product (except I didnt quite center it in the middle of the pot on accident)
About half way done with tying all of them. I started in the morning and as I took breaks from homework I would do another step of the project. So its very easy to make 50 of theses all in one sitting.
Instead of clay at first I tried using floral foam, but there was foam dust everywhere it crumbled as you touched it and cut it, and it was such a mess. I also figured once you poked the hole it wouldnt hold well taking the pen in and out. So I went with the clay. Some of the moss I had to re-glue down after Nate pulled it out when he was making the "pilot" holes. But they are so cute and it cost me only about $1.40 each to make which is a $2.60-$2.10 savings from what it would cost to purchase online, plus shipping. I did use a 25% off total purchase coupon from Michaels while doing this which did help.
We are using fresh gerber daisys to decorate for the shower, so one of these at each place setting helps with the overall decoration of the tables as well!
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