handmade wedding part three • Origami Kusudama flowers

The second type of flower I made for my son's rehearsal dinner was an Oragami design called Kusudama. Kusudama is a modular Oragami flower that is made in units. It seems to be most common to make a 5 unit flower however, I made mine with 6.

PS I LOVED when my dining room table was covered with these beautiful bouquets leading up to the wedding!

Here's how it's done

 #1 • cut a 4 inch square 

#2 • fold in half as shown • use a bone folder or the dull side of a table knife to make the crease sharp

#3 • fold the right corner up to the top and make another strong crease

#4 • repeat with the left corner

 #5 • fold the a-c edge (refer to previous photo #4) 

on the left side over to meet the d-c edge

#6 • fold the a-c edge on the right side

over to meet the b-c edge

continue to make strong creases

with the bone folder

#7 • open the fold on the right side by placing your finger

in the outer pocket

gently pull it open and then flatten it in it's new fold (#8)

This is when your sharp creases will pay off.

It makes this step much easier! 

 

#9 • repeat #7 and #8 so that both sides are now flattened open

#10 • fold the tips down on both the left and right sides

toward you as shown

#11 • fold the left side in and the right side in

this fold will be easy because of previous sharp creases!

#12 • join the left side to the right side

I've ONLY used a paperclip to hold it together for the photo

so DO NOT fold it here!

just join the two sides together

use hot glue to join them.

repeat all the steps above five more times to create a six petal flower

 

a pile of petals  

Gluing the petals together to make the flower

#1 • a little hot glue on one side

#2 • gently squeeze together

do steps 1 and 2 for all six petals

#3 • a little hot glue on the outside

#4 • attach another petal

#5 • adding the third petal

press lightly keeping in mind that this is already half of your finished flower

#6 • you can add the stem here or after your 4th or 5th petal, just squeeze a line of glue on the inside of the flower as shown and lay your stem in the glue

finish adding your petals • six total

#7 •  Doesn't the bead look pretty in the center? Squeeze a dot of hot glue in the center

#8 • gently press in the bead

make sure that the hole in the bead doesn't show

#9 • TA DAH!

 

handmade wedding part one • DIY felt Craspedia flowers

other than June 23rd, 1979, the closest to my heart that a wedding has ever been, happened on March 9th, 2013 in Aiken•SC

it was the marriage ceremony of my first born son Daniel to the love of his life Katie

since the wedding ceremony and reception is traditionally planned and carried out by the bride and her family, I took on the rehearsal dinner and a couples shower with joy and anticipation!

I had wanted to make felt ball flowers for some time. I was also curious about paper flowers and wondered how I could incorporate them into the mix.

I was very familiar with felt balls from my days working at Ornamentea.com. I used 2cm wool felt balls to make a flower that looked much like a Craspedia, commonly called Billy Balls.

••• this is the look I was going for•••

and this is how I did it

photo 1

poke a hole in the felt ball with a very sharp needle • poke ALMOST all the way through but don't ACTUALLY go ALL the way through! this hole is just to get you started

photo 2

the second needle I used was thick and dull • this needle came in a pack of upholstery needles • keep in mind that some of these were sharp but this one needs to be a fat dull needle so that you can create a hole big enough for the stem to go into the felt ball

this time you REALLY do not want to go all the way through the ball

but what you DO want to do is move the thicker needle around in a circular motion to create a bigger hole (see photo 3)

photo 4 

dip the end of a floral stem wire in white glue • I used green covered wire stems that I purchased at AC Moore • 12 pieces in a pack for $1.99 • I poured some glue in the bottom of a butter tub, it's easy to use and you can put a lid on it to store it • I bought a gallon of white glue years ago for all my projects • sometimes I need a mixture of 3 parts water to 1 part glue so these butter tubs are handy for that

dip about 1/2" of the stem in the glue and immediately insert the stem into the hole (see photo 5)

photo 6

no need to worry about any glue showing on your felt ball as it will dry clear • you can lay them on your work table to dry or stand them in a glass or vase to dry

NOTES

sometimes the green thread on the stem wire will push back as you insert them into the felt ball • no need to worry about that as it can make them look more realistic!

Ornamentea.com has a great selection of felt balls in many color combination packages. However, for this project I needed many of one color so I purchased 100 in Lemon from Felt Supplier on Etsy • and don't be fooled by the fact that they came from Poland, the turnaround time was pretty fast

you'll notice that some of the stems are curled • that's simple!

 the first bouquet of felt ball craspedia flowers ready for a party to 'shower' Daniel and Katie

 next up... paper flowers