Non-Flower Bouquets
Mother’s Day is fast approaching and for whatever reason, I got the idea that I wanted to do bouquets three ways. In my head, I was thinking a traditional flower bouquet and then two non-traditional, non-flower bouquets. There are actually a number of options available, both purchasable and DIY. I’ve been leaning toward fruit and candy, but haven’t decided.
I got a little bit of practice this week. One of my sisters-in-law just turned 18. We weren’t sure what to get her when I remembered one of the bouquets that I had seen during my searches for Mother’s Day ideas was a lottery ticket bouquet. I didn’t want to do just lottery tickets, as that seemed pretty boring and not visually appealing enough.
What makes everything better? Chocolate of course. Themed candy bars seemed to be just what this bouquet needed. There are a surprising number of candies that fit the theme.
My idea was to fill a small vase with “gold” chocolate coins, then attach the lottery tickets and candy bars to skewers and arrange them in the vase. Add to that a couple of those small balloons on a stick and voila! Even if none of the tickets are winners, she still gets chocolate.
Sigh. As usual, things didn’t go exactly according to plan. I couldn’t find the chocolate coins or some of the particular candy bars I was thinking of (I’m looking at you Skor bar). Thankfully, I don’t prescribe to the Russell Wilson school of planning – “I always say if you have a plan A, there’s no need for a plan B.” Yeah, he really said that. I, however, have 26 letters in my alphabet and am not afraid to use as many of those as necessary.
Well, I wanted to keep the vase filler a gold color and thought Hershey’s Nuggets (gold nuggets). Unfortunately, the gold wrapped ones were dark chocolate, and I don’t think she likes dark chocolate. Never fear, on the shelf right below the Nuggets were Kisses and almond covered Kisses are also wrapped in gold foil and make better filler than the blocky Nuggets anyways.
The candy bars I just had to go with what I could find. Fun size 100 Grands which I used to make a flower and I stacked some on another skewer. King Size Payday – don’t know why they didn’t have a regular size one, but it added some variation. Almond Joy – not money related but I positioned it so that the Joy was the part that could be seen. And a Hershey’s Gold.
Instead of an actual vase, I used a simmer sauce jar that I had just recently cleaned out. Its height and width turned out to be just the right size. To disguise the fact that it was a jar and not a vase, I wrapped a gauzy ribbon/bow that I had so that it covered the rim (attached with tape) and draped it around part of the jar for a softer look.
The candy and lottery tickets were attached to the skewers using tape. I placed the larger tickets in the back and placed the candy bars between them for depth. I attempted to make a flower with 3 of the tickets – 1 at the top of the stick and 2 overlapping like leaves below it.
To make the 100 Grand flower, I taped them onto the piece of cardboard that was in the 6 pack. I put tape on the back of the candy bars as well as some on the side going around to the back of the cardboard to make them more stable. A slightly heavier weight cardboard, or lighter candy, would probably have been better, as this took a little trial and error to get it stable enough. I then cut around the pieces so that the cardboard wasn’t showing. Then I taped 2 of the Kisses together and taped that to the middle of the “flower.” For extra support, I used 2 skewers taped to the back of the cardboard.
Then it was just a matter of moving them around so that everything could be seen and looked okay. This all went together quicker than an I anticipated and was fairly low on the frustration level. I have to say I am likely to do more non-flower bouquets in the future.
