Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Bridal Shower Flowers (& a totally botched DIY project)

I volunteered on a whim to do the flowers for my friend Melissa's shower last weekend.  "I'm closer to the shower location than any of the other bridesmaids," I thought.  "How hard can it be?"  By the week of the shower, however, I was in full blown panic.  I wanted to use a mix of grocery store flowers and bouquets from my local florist to keep costs down and, of course, you can't arrange flowers too far in advance so I had to wait until the day before the shower.


Oh, also - I decided to try to dye my own mason jars so they looked blue and antiquey and matched a bouquet of flowers Melissa had pinned in her wedding boards on Pinterest.  That's where the "botched DIY Project" in the title comes in.

I found this tutorial online.  Here's what I used:


clear glass mason jars
mod podge
food coloring

As per the tutorial, I mixed food coloring & water, added it to the jars with some Mod Podge and rolled around to coat the inside...



(it was messy)


Then I baked them on warm for an hour or so (it took way longer than directed in the tutorial and the kitchen got a Mod Podge-y smell)...


I let them sit out overnight and filled them with flowers the next morning.  As soon as water hit the inside, the blue coloring started to get pastey and peel off.  I should have expected this.  It's Mod Podge, after all, but the tutorial suggested it would be fine filled with water.  If I were to do this again (because they DID look great blue), I would either not add any water, color the outside instead, OR shellack the inside before filling with water.

But now onto the flowers, because those DID turn out well (despite the fact that they were submerged in sticky blue water paste after an hour or so)...


I made a mix of big bouquets and small ones.  For the large bouquets, I used hydrangea, pink & white roses, white tulips, pink snapdragons, purple mums, & daffodils.  I got ALL of them from a mix of my local grocery stores.  They had a great selection and were relatively inexpensive...

I also added a few sprigs from the dormant lavender bush in my yard...


The smaller bouquets went in the smaller jars and were also a mix...

 
I think the flowers turned out SO well... the jars not so much.  Oh well... stay homey!

9 comments:

  1. I tried the same idea to achieve to look like mercury glass w/chrome paint. I added the paperwhite bulbs to try your project last yr & the paint failed so I did more with the paint on the exterior.
    Louise M.

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    1. Good to know! I haven't tried to make mercury glass... yet! Has it held up so far on the outside of the containers?

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  2. The project with the jars looks like a lot of fun.

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  3. Oh no! It's not botched. Although the Mod Podge messed up a little, the whole thing is still great. You still did a good job. :)

    ~Lisha

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  4. The flowers look gorgeous! Love the bows--such a nice touch.

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  5. oh that's too bad! I did the mercury glass at Christmas, but sprayed the inside with a ton of clear poly before putting water inside... only works with a wider mouth jar, though!

    I LOVE all of the pretty soft colors in the flowers!

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  6. Those are so sweet.....I am doing a bridal shower for a friend of mine! Will keep this idea in mind for sure.
    Found you on Hookin Up with HoH :)

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  7. We just got back from my friends bridal showers and she's a bit of a wild one so we had been hunting for something special. We located a list of 99 scavenger hunt topics and placed them on the back of some shirts which was the most amazing evening! We found tons of excellent themes on this website if you're hunting for ideas:
    bridal shower

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  8. These are great! I am helping a friend plan a bridal shower and I love this idea :)Thanks for sharing.

    I have a DIY craft blog as well, if you would like to take a look it is: http://freespiritcrafts.blogspot.com/

    You have a new follower!

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Thank you so much for taking the time to comment!