Just Tossing Money Away: A Tutorial

I will start by saying that I'm sure there are about a dozen better/easier ways to do this project; I considered at least seven different construction techniques before settling on this one, which may or may not have been correct.  You might look at this and think to yourself, "Why on earth does Miss Goodlaff insist on doing things the hard way?"  Answer: that's just how I roll.

Okay.  So.  After I made my flowers, I needed to assemble them into a bouquet. Here's what I used:

Our local craft store, much as I love it, is sometimes lacking in selection, so I made do with a Styrofoam cone and half-dome, ribbon in our wedding colors, and some greenery and small white flowers to add a bit of interest and filler to the bouquet.  I also used the stems from gerbera daisy flowers (used to make my spring wreath), cut into six-inch lengths.  A bit of florist's tape, a hot glue gun, and the stem from the greenery for core support rounded out my supply list.

First, I arranged the flowers on the Styrofoam half-dome.

I took the Styrofoam cone and shaved it down until I had a one inch wide, six inch long cylinder.  As a side note, Styrofoam shavings go everywhere--if you do it this way, lay down a mat or something (I wish I had, because the Goodlaffs desperately need to vacuum now...). At some point I decided that gluing Styrofoam to more Styrofoam would be a little less than sturdy, so I took the wiry part of the greenery stem, and poked it through the center of the base, leaving just enough to go into the Styrofoam half dome holding the origami flowers.  Like so:

I took some florist's tape and wrapped the other end to disguise the Styrofoam, though if you didn't have tape, you could always paint it instead. 

With a healthy amount of hot glue, I secured the stem base to the half-dome holding the flowers. 

Next, I glued the fake flower stems all around the base, making sure they covered up the Styrofoam.  I should have cut them down to the exact size I would need and then glued each of them in place, but I didn't.  Instead I glued them on, and then had to cut them down; my hands still hurt from cutting through the wire. 

Once all the stems were in place, I wrapped my ribbon in three layers and made a separate bow using three lengths of ribbon from each color, then glued the bow onto the base.

I added the white flowers and greenery to the Styrofoam dome:

And then I was done!

Money may not grow on trees, but it sure blooms in my toss bouquet!

Please tell me I'm not the only one who insists on doing things the hard way?