How to Make a Flower Wrap the Right Way.

Materials Needed Include:

- Cellophane- preferably clear, you will need approximately a 1.5' by 2' rectangle

- Ribbon - in a color that compliments your flower, you will need approximately a 16" piece

-Scissors - these need to be heavy duty enough to cut the stems of the flowers and your florist wire

-Water Tube - this goes at the base of the flower once you have cut it, because the greens can last longer without water. You want it filled about 3/4 the way full so that when you insert your flower stem it doesn't  overflow.

-Florist Wire - this helps hold the head of your flower up so that it doesn't wilt

-[optional] Tissue Paper - this adds depth to your arrangement

Then we need the Flowers:

- 1 large headed flower [i.e. rose, daisy, sunflower, etc.] with a long stem

- 1 piece of leather (the fuller and more green the better)

- Filler (usually a couple small pieces of babys breath, tree fern, status, etc,)

You need to cut the cellophane to approximately a 2' by 1.5' rectangle. (The Width of the cellophane is usually 1.5' on the roll, so you just need to roll it out 2') The rectangle needs to be long enough that when you place the flowers diagonally from upper right to lower left sides, it fits with about 3 inches to spare on the bottom.

Part A

Trim the bottoms of the greens (your leather and fillers) until they fit across the square diagonally. There should be about 5" to spare at the bottom of the cellophane. You also can trim the pieces of fern and babys breath, etc. so that they look nice. I would recommend not trimming the leather because you want that to be as full and green as possible.


Part B

Now take your main flower and place it diagonally on the cellophane. You want the head of the flower to be about 2 inches lower than the top of your tallest piece of green (so probably 2-3 inches from the corner of the cellophane). Then you want to cut the stem of your flower so that it is about 3 inches from the bottom of the cellophane. Make sure to cut your stem at an angle, because it lets your flower soak up more water and live longer. Stick the water tube on now, so that the flower doesn't wilt during the handling of the next step.

(Caution: You want to handle the flower as little as possible during this step. Too much contact with the flower could cause bruising, and some flowers (like daisies) wilt when you're touching them with warm hands.)

Take your wire and cut the tip about 1/8 inch down and at an angle. This makes it sharp so that it can be stuck into your flower. Take the sharpened end and stick it into the flower at the base of the head and as close to the beginning of the stem as you can. (If you're doing a rose, just stick this in about 1/6 of an inch, but if you're doing an open faced flower such as a sunflower or daisy, you can stick the wire all the way through, bend it into a hook, and pull down so that it blends with the flower).

Then you take the wire, and twist it around the stem of the flower about 3 times., We don't want the twists to be tight, kind of elongated, and it should end about 1/2 way down the stem. (See Picture Below). Take the end of your wire and bend it up slightly, making a ring at the base of your wire. This helps support the flower and keeps wire from poking anyone.

Now we're going to arrange the flowers so that they look nice when wrapped.

If using tissue paper, place this on top of the cellophane at an angle so that when wrapped it looks pretty. :]

First place the leather diagonally on the cellophane as you did while cutting. This is your base for the wrap, and keeps the rest of the flowers in place. Now place your main flower (the one with the tube)  centered on the leather.  Take the filler and place it on either side of the main flower, but only on the leather. (If you want it to look even more full, trim one of the prettier fillers about an inch and place it on top of your main flower to add more depth when its wrapped).

Now that you're all arranged, you want to wrap your beautiful 'arrangement'.

You want to fold up the bottom corner of your cellophane to the bottom of the flowers. It should take off the bottom of the cellophane square. While holding this in place, you want to fold the left side in until it reaches the leather and it begins to roll around your flowers.

You don't want your flowers to be too crowded and pushed together, so don't roll the cellophane very tight. But if you leave it too loose, it could all fall out. When finished the circumference of the top should be around 5 inches or so.

Hold on to the base of the flowers and keep rolling until the cellophane is used up entirely. When looking at the front, there should be a point in the back with the point of the leather, and a dip in the front directly infront of your flower. It looks really nice, trust me. :]

Now time to make it pretty.

Take your ribbon and cut it diagonally on the corners. (This makes it look nice when you've tied it all into a bow.)
Then you take the ribbon and tie it around the center of the cellophane wrap so that it keeps everything in place.
The bottom should be folded completely so that the flowers won't fall out, and tieing it keeps the flowers in place. (Make sure to tie it just tight enough to hold the flowers together, but not super tight. It can bruise the flowers just like handling them too much can.)

If you want to attach a card, you can straight pin it onto the ribbon.

And now you can enjoy your beautifully wrapped flowers. :]