I've had these sconces laying around for several years since my daughter got married. They held fresh flowers and we hung them in the sanctuary of the church. Recently I painted my living room a creamy yellow color and my husband hung our large TV on the wall. I had nothing else to adorn the wall with but thought these sconces would be just the thing.
Using my Cricut, Design Space and the Flower Market Cartridge, I made beautiful paper flowers to fill the sconces.
After logging into Cricut Design Space I selected New Project then Images. In the right corner I selected Cartridges and typed in Flower Market. The flowers I needed were at the top. They were the Daisy (#MFADCF2) and the Chrysanthemum (#MFADEB0). Then I found a leaf (#MD43189) and a branch (#MD72D3B). Once I made my selections and brought them onto the Design Space mat, I needed to resize them and change their colors. I left the flowers the size they were which was a little over 3". I resized the leaf to be 2" X 2.5" and the branch to be 5.5" X 3". For each sconce I needed 6 branches for a total of 12 and I made a total of 12 leaves as well. The flowers were not in order from largest to smallest and the colors were so close, that I had trouble differentiating between them. In my video I struggled to re color them. In hind sight I would ungroup all of the flowers and put each kind of flower in order from largest to smallest and change the colors in Design Space to really represent the colors of paper I actually used. I cut corners to save time and left the flowers the color they were in Flower Market and it was probably a little confusing. But you know about hind sight. So if you're trying to make these flowers using CTMH paper, remember that the back side is now a different hue than the front. So you can cut flowers from the same card stock but flip one over to get a different shade of the same color. It's terrific!!! I ended up using 4 different red card stocks and 3 different yellows and was able to flip most of them over to get more dimension in my colors. One of my card stock's was from the old line that was the same color, front and back. In the end it didn't matter much. You don't see the individual colors but you do see the highlights and shadows from the different papers I used.
So when you're in Design Space and you put the flowers in order from largest to smallest, make the largest two mum layers the lightest red to cut from Smoothie, then the next two mum layers that are smaller, a darker red for the Poppy flowers, then the next two flowers that are smaller, a darker red for the Cranberry Flowers and the last flower in the darkest red for the Ruby flowers. Do the same for the yellow flowers: put them in order from largest to smallest and make the largest two flowers a light yellow for the Canary flowers, the next two smaller flowers, a little darker yellow for the Saffron flowers and the last two smallest flowers, a dark yellow for the Goldrush flowers. Then when you go to cut them out you will just flip every other flower over so you will have the variation in color. Again, I think I did this in reverse order by making the largest flowers the darkest but really if you look at a real flower, the inside of the flower would be the darkest part because it is in the flower and would be shaded by the outer petals.
Once you cut out the flowers, lay them out in order. Being organized will take away any doubts you have when you start gluing them together, I made rows for each flower and arranged them from largest to smallest and flipped flowers over to alternate colors.
Next I took a paper scoring stylus and curled the leaves toward me to make little flower cups. I went down the line and curled the flowers largest to smallest. You could also use a bone folder to curl the flowers.
Next I glued the layers together using Liquid Glass. You could use hot glue. The liquid glass dried very quickly and was easy to use.
I placed a Gold Glitter Gem in each of the Daisies and I put a white Enamel Gem in the Mums.
I punched out 1" circles of coordinating card stock from the scraps of the flowers for each flower for the back. Then I took a floral wire and dabbed some Liquid Glass on the back of each flower and placed the floral wire in it and placed the punched circle over it. I held it in place for 30 seconds or so and it held beautifully.
I glued three branches together on top of each other to make a sturdier branch. I used the Dual Action Glue Pen to do this because when it dries it is not shiny so if I got a little messy it would not be a big deal. I like the texture of this glue. It goes on very thin but has a very good hold.
I folded about 1/8" on the long edge of each leaf and ran some liquid glass glue in the fold and wrapped the folded part of the leaf around the floral wire stem. Since I used double sided paper I alternated the side of the leaf I used and also alternated putting the leaf on the left and right side of the stem, making sure the fold was to the back.
I cut some floral foam and wedged it down into the sconce. It was such a tight fit so I didn't bother to hot glue it in.
To arrange my flowers I made a a triangle with the yellow flowers placing one straight in and the other two on the left and right forming a visual triangle. Then I placed the red flowers in a triangle as well with one at the bottom of the arrangement just above the lip of the sconce and the other two to the left and right of the yellow flower in the center and slightly lower. The thing I strive for is balance and visual appeal.
I poked two of the branches that I had glued together on the left and the right in the center but spraying outward, again in a visually pleasing way, filling in the gap.
I had a bunch of yellow, fall flowers that I had bought years ago and never had a purpose for them and I thought they would add some fullness to the arrangement. When making a flower arrangement I will cut apart or pull apart the bunches to utilize individual stems of flowers. This is what I did. I was able to use 3 small bunches of the filler flowers to fill in gaps in the arrangement and a couple of tall sprays to give the arrangement some added height.
This project took several hours to complete but was worth it as the arrangements are beautiful and when I look at it I am filled with pride as I made it myself. And that feels good.
You can purchase the Cartridge and papers from my website. I will list links to the supplies below.
Cricut Flower Market Collection
Ruby Card Stock
Cranberry Card Stock
Poppy Card Stock
Smoothie Card Stock
Goldrush Card Stock
Saffron Card Stock
Canary Card Stock
Fern Card Stock
Canary Ink
Liquid Glass
Dual Action Glue Pen
Gold Glitter Gems
Enamel Gems - Gray
