Floral Lifestyle Tips & Tricks from Expert Julie Mulligan

Floral crowns seem to be blossoming everywhere you turn these days… and with good reason!  They’re delightfully charming, they’re romantic, and they can be worn anywhere from a wedding to a birthday celebration to a music festival. They’re also surprisingly easy to make. There are just a few basic steps to creating your own amazing flower crown!

I’m going to show you how to “wire and tape” using a single floral variety (in this case white waxflower) that can be worn on its own.

And how easy it is to take it up a notch simply by gluing in your choice of additional flora (and even “fauna”)! You can also do a combination of wiring and gluing. Wire the larger flowers and glue the smaller ones. So let’s get started! Continue Reading…

The sunflower has been adopted as a symbol of happiness, strength, a love of the sun and sunlight. Because the sunflower always turns its face to the sun, it has also come to symbolize faith and the constant search for light, or enlightenment. Everybody loves sunflowers!

Here are a few ways to incorporate the irresistible beauty and warmth of the sunflower into your next summer get-together.

Vintage Sunflower Tabletop

Use Antique Single Flower Vases

For an updated twist on a traditional centerpiece, an assortment of vintage-style green and yellow bottles, each holding a single sunflower, are lined down the center of the table creating a garden of sunflowers with their faces looking up to the sun!

How to Make Sunflower Placemats

Sunflowers come in many different colors and sizes—from mini to giant. Our super-size sunflower placemats make a big impact and are easy to make!

What You’ll Need:

• Cardboard circle – approximately 10″ in diameter
• Salal leaves – 20-25 leaves in various sizes (fake leaves can work too for a longer lasting placemat)
• Glue
• Yellow spray paint
• Brown paint
• Sponge

Step 1

Cut one cardboard circle for each placemat. (This is a good use for old cardboard boxes!) Each circle should be about 10″. I used a dinner plate as a template to trace a circle onto the cardboard, which worked perfectly. Use the sponge to add brown paint to your circle, leaving a bit of the original cardboard color showing through to create a textured look for your sunflower center.

Step 2

Cut all of the salal leaves from the stem and spray paint them yellow. Once they have dried, glue the wider end of the larger sized leaves to the edge of the cardboard circle.

Step 3

Glue the smaller leaves between each of the larger leaves.

With fresh salal leaves, the sunflower placemats can be made a day or two before you plan to use them. Keep them flat and in a cool place.