Hi Spring Flower babes. How are you all? Are you ready for Summer? I’m ready to bring it on! But……before Spring ends, I have a little project to do with you.

Around the corner from my house are these rediculous poppies. They are the biggest, pinkest most insanely beautiful flowers that I have ever seen. They almost bring me to tears. This one was 10 inches across.

All I want in life in the Spring is to literally wear beautiful flowers instead of clothes. The only semi-practical and appropriate way of doing this that I can think of is to wear them in my hair.

I have worn flowers in my hair during Spring my whole life. It just seems right to do it, when I am surrounded by colorful blooms. Right?

Some flowers, though, like these dreamy poppies just don’t last. Once you pick them, they wilt and drop their petals within 10 minutes out of water. This makes them impossible to wear in the hair.

I started experimenting with flower-crown-making last month, when the first dogwoods started blooming. They were so hearty and pink and magical, I had to have them on my head. I snagged a plastic headband from my daughters and pulled out the ‘ol glue gun.

The crown was just lovely. I wanted it to last forever. It didn’t. After 4 days, it was  shriveled gluey and manky looking. This got me thinkin. Is it possible to make a flower crown that lasts forever?

I did a little research online about how to choose flowers to dry. I wanted ones that would keep their color and not shed leaves. I learned that picking flowers like roses and daisies before they are fully bloomed is the best way to get them to not shed, and drying them out of the sun will help them maintain color.

I started looking around the neighborhood for flowers that looked hearty. I found chive flowers, hellabores, lavender, small rosebuds, daisies, succulents, bee balm, dried up hydrangea, some random hearty berries and bachelors button. They all seemed thicker-petaled and with a lot of texture. I brought them home and tied them in bunches with dental floss. I hung them upside down with push pins in my warm dry attic for a week.

Once dry, I proceeded to prune the flowers by trimming them individually so that their stems were each about 2 inches long to begin with, and stripping unwanted leaves away.

I cleared myself a workspace in the garage, got myself a simple metal headband
and my Glue Gun Kit and got busy trimming, gluing, and designing with flowers. It was heavenly:)

 

DIY Dead Flower Crown

 

1. Clear your workspace, get your glue gun and headband ready.

2. Prepare plants and flowers by trimming off access leaves and peeling bits. Think about the best and most secure way to glue on your flowers and trim them appropriately.

3. Starting with the larger more sturdy plants and flowers, apply a large pea-sized amount of glue to the base of the flower, and hold it firmly against the headband for a minute until the glue hardens. If needed, put another drop of glue on the inside of the headband. Wait till it dries halfway, then use your fingers to squish it into the flower base, securing it tightly to the headband.

4. Take a step back and visualize how you want to use flowers to design the headband. Plan it out a bit in your head, but be open to a change in creative direction! Let the flowers tell you where they want to be. Prepare some smaller ones to fill in gaps.

5. Start filling in the gaps in between the larger plants with smaller ones. Use smaller amounts of glue on these ones.

6. Continue setting larger plants, then filling in the empty spaces with smaller ones. Add a pop of texture here and there to break it up.

7. Use the smaller hearty blooms like rosebuds to taper the flower arrangement down the sides of the headband. Stop designing when you get to about 2 inches from either end of the headband.

Now let all the glue dry completely. Keep your crown somewhere safe and out of direct sunlight. Handle it with care, and wear it on the most special of occasions:)

Dead Flower Crown Giveaway!

I would absolutely love to give one of you this lovely crown. It will make you feel like the prettiest person to walk the world. I would also love to get this fun post out to as many eager flower-crafting folks as possible on the world wide web! To enter the Dead Flower Crown Giveaway, please share this post on your facebook, follow HTHG on Instagram if you are on it, and comment on this post letting me know your favorite flower. I will randomly choose a winner this Friday, and one of you lovelies will be the proud owner of this beauty! Ready, Set, GO!

xoxo, HTHG