I can't believe I haven't blogged for so long!  This year I've decided to take it easy and focus on my family, but when a side project comes along I'm thrilled!  J who is a designer himself asked if I could make his wife a bouquet who was graduating from a professional degree.  Kudos to R who stuck to her guns and followed her dreams!  Our God is good!  I was asked to stay away from pink, purples and use Tiffany blue, pastels and a request to have something similar to my succulent bouquet I made for M&G.

I'm all for "bang for your buck" and wanted them to keep as much as they could without having to deal with wilted flowers afterwards.  I made some blue tissue flowers, added bits and bobs like a ceramic mushroom, my acrylic painted poms, a few fresh white parrot tulips, and a few white silk hydrangeas to give contrast and texture.

The most prominent piece were the succulent plants, my absolute favorite!  I find it to be so unfortunate to just cut the stems off and wire them so I put them in silver IKEA tin cans, soil included, and get this - I inserted them individually into the scored cardboard box lid half way through so I'd have a base to work with.  I then used the silk hydrangea stems as my "pillar" to hold everything up so I could work with it as though it was really a hand tied bouquet.

It took a bit of hand muscles since it was top heavy, but I had my little 3 year old helper who very willingly helped me when needed.  It was a very good bonding time with my lovely boy!  Love him to bits!

I used silver tissue to hide any mechanics alongside the box and wrapped the whole bouquet with white and sea foam color tissue paper.  I finished it up with white polka dot cellophane wrap and a Tiffany blue satin ribbon.

I am very pleased with how it turned out and that's what I love about crafting.  Creativity is endless!

"Imagination is the beginning of creation.

You imagine what you desire,
you will what you imagine,
and at last, you create what you will" 

George Bernard Shaw

For more awesome photos visit my Simply Sweet Facebook Page and don't forget to "like" :)