Blooming Garden

     I was playing around with some scrap card stock and thought this would make a cute centerpiece for the children's table for Easter. I really used a lot of recyclables on this one!
     First I started out with some card board dividers that separates cans. I just evened these pieces off to form a strip. You can make it as long as you want.

     In order to have some stability as well as flexibility, I taped some 18 gauge wire to one side before covering it with card stock.

     On the right you can see the taped wire for the floral base prior to covering it. Look at all those flowers. Hmm, is that tissue paper? Wrong!!  I was making a project with clear plastic and the sheets were separated with this waxed paper. It is so intriguing because it has a sort of texture like linen. I used Tim Holtz Alteration Floral dies but you can use any die cuts. I particularly like the floral cuts on the cricut cartridges. There are so many to chose from! After they were all cut I used Rangers Inkabilites Floral Brights and just had fun smooching all the colors. Then I mixed up all the colors and stacked them up. The centers feature a beautiful jeweled brad by Creative Charms.
     I used gypsy Wanderings to cut the stem @ 5" with the shadow feature on. I cut the stem and a piece of chip board ( using the heavy cutting blade) and actually cut a second set out of card stock but this time I flipped the design so I could cover the front and back of the chip board. Before adhering these together I added some more wire to the center of the stem to make it a little more sturdy however you could always use 2 pieces of chip board stems.
     This is my favorite part: decorating. As my husband always says "it's all a matter of preparation". I pulled out more of the blooming garden set from Creative Charms and decided this project would be so cute with these felt butterfly embellishments. I decided to wrap the base with some more wire but I think a nice springy sheer ribbon would also be pretty. The Flowers were adhered with some pop dots and, after slipping the "stems" into the wire I used a few glue dots to keep them in place.
     This takes up very little room and will be adorable with little Easter baskets at each place setting. The kids are going to love it!