Glittered Paper Flowers

I started out thinking I would make a glittered paper flower garland... using only blues and greens... so I set out my supplies...
and got to work assembling the flowers. I've made these flowers before and did an in-depth tutorial here, in case you are interested in making your own. Instead of putting these flowers on pipe cleaners, I glued this grouping to simple 24 gauge wire. Of course 20 minutes in I decided that I needed a broader color palette, that I should watercolor some white crepe paper to get different shades of blue with an ombre color fade... then added pink and then... the whole project got away from me. It's typical. I set out to make about 16 flowers and ended up making more like 30. And tons and tons of little solid green glittered leaves... Aren't they beautiful! Each flower had a rhinestone or bead in the center and each flower was covered in glitter. I really like how the dark blue and dark pink glitter added some contrast and a bit of drama in the center of the lighter-colored flowers. So pretty. (And each flower has a personality of its own, too!)
Close up of the watercolor pink color fade effect and the clear glitter.


Then I started adding the glittered leaves to the arrangement... And it started looking more and more like a bouquet... I'm sure I'll find 101 uses for these flowers (Garland, swag, around a sign or frame, around a Chinese lantern, a wreath, a table centerpiece, gift wrap adornment etc etc), but for now, I'm going to enjoy them as a simple bouquet. Here are the glitter colors I used, all from Art Institute Glitter:

• For the leaves & the outlines of the lime green flowers I used: #109 Calvado Ultrafine Opaque Glitter and #358 Jungle Ultrafine Opaque Glitter
• For the lighter color flowers, I covered them in clear #85 Crystal Ultrafine Transparent Glitter
• For the inside of the ombre pink flowers and the outside of the fuchsia flowers, I used #141 Magnolia Pink Ultrafine Transparent Glitter
• For the inside of the ombre blue flowers and the outside of the royal blue flowers, I used #24 Royal Wink Ultrafine Opaque Glitter
• To glue everything together, I used Designer Dries Clear adhesive, which is my favorite glue ever! It has the perfect consistency.

Thanks for checking out my post
Carrie