DIY Arranging at Home

If I have company coming or I need a thoughful gift, think flowers.  I so often forget how easy it is to arrange at home even on a budget.  When there is no money in the budget for flowers my go to place is my families yard. My Daddy and Mama's home has a wonderful garden with various flowers and plants.  Landscaping it has been a family project for years.  I gathered up lots of greens and a few blooming flowers (what there is blooming, it's February in Ca).  If you do this at home the key is to look for various colors and texures in your choices.  That variation makes all of the difference and really makes the viewer study the arrangement. I also wanted to use an unusual container for my home grown arrangement.  I went with a vintage flour sifter my husband and I found at a yard sale.  The lady gave it to us for free (whoo hoo).

The sifter is open at the bottom so I used a sandwich sized ziplock bag and 4 paper clips the secure the bag to the top. I hooked the paper clips just underneath the seal of the bag so that is would hold stroger with out ripping to the top of the bag.  I did the with 4 paperclips separating them along the bag evenly.  I then attached each paper clip to the top rim of the sifter (see image above)  As you can see the paper clips serve a dual purpose.  I also used them to hold down the vine greenery I wanted to flow down the outside of the arrangement container. But that step comes after all of the greenery has been placed in the next step.
                                            
Once the ziplock bag was secure I placed a piece of wet floral foam inside to help keep the greenery and flowers in place.  If you dont have floral foam you can place the flowers without.  Floral foam just makes it easier.  Whenever I am at a Craft store I will pick up a block or to and store them away for days like this when I need a piece of a block. I then placed the greens in no particular order or pattern.  I looped some smooth long narrow leaves to give it an extra texture.












Finally, I put all of the flowers in.  The only rule I used here was height.  I wanted the daffodils to really stand out so I cut the taller and plces them in the center.  Then in various smaller lengths cut the other flowers and plced them,