Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Show Off!

I made a Brooch Bouquet and I just wanted to show it off!



Here's a QUICK recap of how I made it:

1) I hunted for Brooches! I had a collection from my childhood, my mom contributed and my fiance's grandmother. I scoured Ebay, Etsy and all the local thrift stores for the rest... Just like the Hankies it took months to find them all!

2) I got my supplies together:

40 Brooches (approx)
Hot Glue!
Styrofoam wand holder
2 types of wire ( a thick/flexible craft wire and a thin/green 18gauge wire)
Wire Cutters

I labored over which wire to choose and my local Michael's had very little selection. So I got a gold craft wire in the Jewelry Section and a thin wrapped green wire near the hot glue. They both worked lovely! You just need a stiff wire for the stem for the brooches and a flexible wire to steady them.

3) I researched how to make it! I used Ms. Awesome and Seamstress of Avalon to put the bouquet together.

4) I created a 4 or 5 inch stem for each brooch, stabilized it with craft wire and hot glue. Then I hot glued each brooch into the Styrofoam wand holder.

5) When I was researching, I saw lots of posts about how hard and expensive these are to make. I made the bouquet for about half of what people estimated and it was EASY to make! It really was simple and it just came together. I did it over the course of three nights and two movies (My Fair Lady & Wuthering Heights). About 4 hours of putting it together.


6) I will add ribbon to the handle as the Wedding date gets closer!