Bridal Bouquets Peonies Hydrangeas Roses 2013 Lilies Tulips with Brooches Purple white Roses: Bridal Bouquets Pictures Peonies Hydrangeas Roses 2013 Lilies Tulips With Brooches Purple White Roses

Monday 9 September 2013

Bridal Bouquets Pictures Peonies Hydrangeas Roses 2013 Lilies Tulips With Brooches Purple White Roses

Bridal Bouquets Pictures Biography

Source(google.com.pk)
This is my inspiration bouquet and I was actually able to get some of the same brooches that are in this bouquet. It looks like they got a lot of them from fabulousbrooch.com, as that's where I have gotten all of mine from so far.

I was 100% sure I wanted to do a floral bouquet in the beginning, but after seeing so many gorgeous brooch bouquets, I just couldn't resist. Finding this picture just made me start on it earlier than anticipated.
Finished!! 09/20/2011
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I finished it tonight and I am so happy with the outcome. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be other then the blisters from doing the wiring. After that was done, it just took some time to put it together.

I ended up using almost all of the pearl and diamond bead accents along with a total of 21 brooches. I could have filled in some more of the spaces, but to me it looks full and not over done, so I'll leave it as is. Plus, it keeps the cost down since I don't have to order any more brooches :)

This picture makes it look a little yellow, but it's a very light ivory.

FI likes it and I can't wait to show it to my mom tomorrow!!
Instructions
Wiring the brooch
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I used 20 gauge silver floral stem wire and two needle nose pliers. I used two pieces of wire per brooch, one on each side of the pin and just twisted it around. I then twisted the wire together and wrapped it with white floral tape. This was very time consuming and I suggest doing a little at a time. I wired too many in one night and got blisters on my finger and my thumb was numb and tingly for a few hours.

Close up of wired brooch
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I started using green floral wire, but since I am using all silver, pearl and diamond brooches, the green showed too much. I ended up having to change the first few that I did to the silver wire and it looks much better now.
Accent pieces
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I am using pearls and diamond beads as accents and to help fill in any open spaces. I don't really like the overlapping look of some brooch bouquets. They are so beautiful and I'd hate to cover them up with each other. So far, I have about 75 pearls and 60 of the diamond beads. I really hope these turn out looking as good as I'm imagining because these little guys were also a pain!!
Assembly
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I started off with four ivory hydrangea from Hobby Lobby and removed the leaves and tried to get an overall round shape. I taped them together with some white floral tape. Then I started with the six brooches I got with my first order. I taped those down with the white floral tape as well.

I was worried that I would have to move some as I went along, but luckily, they all fit around each other nicely. Once I had all of them in place, I started filling in the gaps with the pearls and diamond beads and taping a few at a time. This was harder then the brooches because I wanted them to sit a certain way and they didn't want to budge some times. Again, I taped these a few at a time which made it much easier to hold it all together. I also added some feather pieces that you can see in my finished photo.
The Handle
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I used a paper towel roll to go over the wire and stems and just used some hot glue to secure it. I used enough so that it wouldn't move.

Now I just had to figure out what to do with the hole on the bottom. At first, I was going to put another brooch, but I didn't really like the way it was looking in pictures of other's I've seen. Plus I wanted it to have a snag free edge so that it didn't get caught on my dress. I decided to just stuff some paper in there and held it down with some hot glue. I'll explain how I covered the end with ribbon below.

Covering Up The Ugly Stuff
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This was the part I was dreading. I had seen so many ideas and wasn't really feeling any of them. I finally settled on this - loops of wired ribbon glued to the handle. I'm still not crazy about it, but I tried to make them small enough so that it doesn't show too much. It does the job and covers up the wiring and what not.
Final Touches
This part was the easiest. I covered the end with a small piece of ribbon by laying it flat over the end and securing it with hot glue. I them simply folded down the edges and tried to get as little creases as possible. I then started wrapping the handle from the bottom up and ended by cutting it, making a small fold to hide the trimmed edge and gluing it down. I then glued on a piece of some lace trimming to hide the line between the looped ribbon and the wrapped handle. And to finish it off, I glued on a string of diamonds.