How to Make Low, Full Floral Arrangements (For under $15!)

Something like the floral arrangement above would cost around 50 - 75$ from a florist or floral delivery company.  What if we could make this for under $15.00!?  Believe it or not the flowers used in this arrangement came from the supermarket.  I've spoken before about how easy it is to make a swoon-worthy bouquet from simple grocery store flowers.  I also want to share another neat trick with you today, and that is my go-to method for creating low and full vases.  Let's get started!

You Will Need:
-5" round vase
-Small bunch of tea roses
-2 Large blooms
-A mix of medium and small blooms
-Clear Tape (Scotch or packing)
-Scissors
-(A couple of rubber bands)

MAKE A TAPE GRID
This step is what's going to make or break the arrangement.  A little trick I learned while assisting floral stylists on photo sets, the "tape grid"!  This neat little secret enables you to build the arrangement without the risk of certain flowers slipping down in the vases. It's a simple cheap way of creating stability for your flowers.  Much cheaper that floral foam and also perfect for glass vases where you want to steer clear of seeing foam at the bottom.

Cut thin strips of the clear tape and stretch tightly across the top of your vase (tic tac toe style)  You'll probably only need 4 strips of tape like I did.

ADD THE BIGS
Starting with your biggest, fullest stems cut the excess stem off at a sharp angle.  Cutting a clean sharp angle on the bottom of the stems allows the flower to properly draw water, you'll want to do this on all stems. Place the large blossoms into the outer squares that the tape grid created.  We're going to build the rest of the arrangement on top of and around these big beauties.

ADD THE MEDIUMS
Make 3 bunches of the tea roses, gathering them into groups and securing with rubber bands.  (Notice the importance of removing leaves and stranglers from the stems of everything.)  Insert rose-bunches into the center of the tape grid.

ADD THE SMALLS
After you've placed the rest of the medium stems, go around filling any spaces with the rest of your small blooms, like these small white variegated daisies.  I like to insert them in groups of three.

YOU'RE DONE!
You should now have a beautiful full arrangement.  You will have noticed how easy it is to control the positioning of each flower with the tape grid in place and it's completely undetectable once the arrangement is complete.

MAKE IT A GIFT!
If this is a gift, perhaps for a special valentine, it's easy to personalize the arrangement with ribbons and maybe a sweet tag or card. 

Happy arranging!  I bet you use the tape trick all the time now, I know I do!

FOLLOW ATTIC LACE ON BLOGLOVIN!