DIY Bouquets Part 2: For The Little Ones

Way back in the early stages of my wedding planning, I ran across this image of an adorable flower girl carrying a ball of flowers:

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I have since learned that the ball of flowers I'm referring to is called a pomander or a kissing ball. But I really didn't care what they were called as long as I knew I would have them for our wedding. :)

When I first decided on the pomanders, I also planned to make them using tissue and line the aisle with them.

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I realized pretty quickly that tissue pomanders + outdoors = just asking for bad weather. I changed my mind and decided to go with mason jars on shepherd's hooks for the aisle but stuck with my plan for the flower girl pomanders. As I've begun learning how to work with fake flowers, I knew that a fake floral pomander would be relatively easy to do and actually take less time than a tissue paper one.

So once again, during my DIY/Heroes weekend marathon, I set to work on making my little ones something to carry down the aisle.

First off, you'll need your supplies: a Styrofoam ball (sold at your neighborhood craft stores & Walmart-make sure not to get the squishy foam one like I did on accident!), a hot glue gun, flowers of your choice (round & fluffy flowers like a carnation work best), wire cutters, and ribbon.

I started by poking a hole all the way through the ball for the ribbon. I just used a stem from a fake magnolia bush I had sitting around because I didn't have anything on hand to make the hole. It worked pretty well!


Feed your ribbon through the hole and tie off a knot at the end to secure it. You can see all the green fuzzy stuff from the foam ball on the ribbon in this picture. That's why you should make sure to buy a styrofoam ball! You could also let the ribbon hang out the bottom like in the first photo or Miss Cloud's pomanders. It's up to you! On the other end, loop the ribbon and hot glue it together to make the handle.


Now the easy part! Clip off the flower stems (leave about 1-2 inches of stem) and start poking them into the ball. You can make the hole and then put hot glue into it before reattaching the stem to make them stay secure. I only did this for a few because it was a trial run and I didn't want to waste all my stems. It turns out that I could still pull hard and get them to come out, so the glue is more about sturdiness than permanence. Don't worry about the knot at the bottom of the ball. It'll be completely covered by the flowers!


Wah-lah! Here's the final product!



It's a bit bigger than I wanted. I grabbed the 5 inch ball thinking it would be the right size but not factoring in the extra size created by the carnation heads. This was just a trial, so I went back to purchase Styrofoam balls in the smaller 4 inch size now that I knew what I was doing.


Want to make your own pomander but you're using real flowers? Here's a great DIY link for you!

Cost Breakdown for 3 Carnation Pomanders

Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks: FREE (already in my crafting repetoire, but you can find them as low as $2.50 at Walmart)
Chocolate Satin Ribbon: FREE (left over from previous projects)
Wire Cutters: FREE (bought during previous project for only $3)
Carnations: 40 stems at $.59 each = $23.60 (roughly 13 stems each)
3 four-inch Styrofoam balls: $4.50

Grand Total with Tax: $30 OR $10 each