Creativity: The Secret to Great Floral Design

by CariThompson on June 6th, 2012 | 1 Comment »

In April, the Mom It Forward team had the opportunity to attend SNAP!, a creativity conference for bloggers. There were tons of great sessions about finding your passion, photography, DIY projects, and defining your style, to name a few. One of my very favorite sessions at the conference was the floral design class put on by Megan Dunford from Persimmon Floral Design.

Sometimes it can be tricky to get everyone involved and engaged in a hands-on workshop, but they did a great job with this one. I was really impressed with how well the class was put together for the individual, especially for flower novices like myself.

The Secret to Fun and Unique Floral Design

Each seat in the room was set up like it’s own little flower designing station. When you sat down, there was a cute little vase waiting for you with water ready for your flowers.

After a brief rundown on flower basics from Megan, we were sent to pick out our flowers. In the back of the room, there were buckets set up with different types of flowers. Each bucket was labeled with the flower name and suggested quantities for a well-composed flower arrangement.

Once we chose our flowers, we were given a choice of scrapbooking paper to use to decorate the outside of our vase—something I would have never thought to do. When we had all your supplies, we were set free to put together our floral arrangements however we wanted.

I was a little intimidated at first, as flowers were a new medium to me. Here are some tips I found very helpful to get over my apprehension:

• Group the same types of flowers together. For example: I had five white daisies for my arrangement. Instead of spreading them throughout the arrangement, I grouped the daisies in one or two bunches. This makes your arrangement easier on the eyes.

• Grids! I had no idea florists were so sneaky. You can create a grid over the top of your vase or bowl with clear cellophane tape, which supports top-heavy flowers. Just cut the stems short and insert one or two flowers in each opening in the grid.

• Once you know all the rules of floral arranging, forget them; do what you want. If you think it looks good, you’re right.

The last tip was probably the most helpful and empowering, and it should probably be applied to more than just floral design. We bog ourselves down so often with the fear of doing things incorrectly. But really, who cares? If you like it, then that’s all that matters. Create what you want and love it!

I really enjoyed being able to express my creativity in a new way and hang out with some great ladies at SNAP! Now that I know the basics of flower arranging and created a cute vase without a floral disaster, I feel like I can confidently create fun and unique arrangements for my home. Thank you, SNAP!