finished brooch bouquet

The wedding is now just about a month away, so here is my brooch bouquet I have been working on for the special day.  A lot of time and thought went into this project, but I think in the end it turned out perfectly for our vintage garden theme.  I ended up including jewelry other than brooches.  A pearl necklace is wrapped around the base, a few sets of earrings and rings are wired into place, and there are also some rhinestones glued in there as filler.  Now I have a wonderful keepsake that can be passed down.

Cost: $27 Time: 10 hours Needed: scissors (owned) hot glue gun (owned) lace bouquet funnel ($3) 1" dowel rod - 8-10" in length ($1) 3 brooches ($10) 5" foam sphere ($3) 24" satin ribbon for handle ($4) 10x10" fabric for the sphere (owned) 6x6" lace fabric (owned) fake flower arrangement leaves ($3) florist wire ($3) 50-70 bridal shower brooch/jewelry gifts (free) rhinestones (owned) 1.  Collect your brooches and jewelry.  I was lucky enough to collect many brooches and jewelry from my relatives and friends, so I contributed only three pieces.  You're going to want to get a variety of sizes and shapes so placing them will create almost a puzzle of bling on your bouquet.   2.  Core the sphere.  Cut off a third of your foam sphere.  Eye it and mark it with a sharpie, then take a large knife and slowly cut through your marking.  Find the center on the flat side and dig out a hole about 1" in diameter and 1.5" deep. 3.  Attach the sphere to the handle.  Make sure your dowel rod fits into the hole and then layer hot glue inside the hole.  Push an end of the rod into place trying to keep it perpendicular to the flat side of the foam. 4.  Pin fabric to sphere. Take your fabric and pin the middle of it to the top of the sphere.  Turn it upside down and start stretching and pinning the fabric underneath to smoothly cover the foam.  I found using a plastic container to prop it up helped a lot. 5.  Place your brooches and jewelry.  Pin your biggest pieces first to the fabric.  Keep pinning until you fill it up. This is the most tedious time consuming part.  Your fingers will be sore from pinning and rearranging to get the look you want. Use florist wire and hot glue to attach rings and earrings. Fill in bare spots by gluing rhinestones into place. 6.  Decorate your funnel.  I cut some leaves off of a flower arrangement to glue around the funnel and over the lace. You may recognize these leaves from my twig and leaf pens project. Take your lace material and cut a small hole in the middle to slide over the funnel opening and glue to the plastic underside of the funnel. Let dry. 7.  Slide on your funnel.  Carefully, slide your funnel onto the rod and layer hot glue into the spot the funnel will rest. Let dry. 8.  Decorate handle.  Take the satin ribbon and glue and cover the bottom of the rod, then continue to glue and wrap until you cover it. Glue the ribbon end well when you reach the funnel so it doesn't unravel.

I am very excited to carry this down the aisle with me soon.  It turned out great.  My family and friends really helped out and found mostly green brooches for the bouquet.  It's one of kind and it was fun to make.  If you start to get frustrated by this project with all the pinning, this is one you can walk away from and come back whenever you're ready again.  One other thing that you might want to consider is making labels of who gave you your pieces. I made clear labels and stuck them to the ones that had enough real estate to adhere.  My bouquet ended up weighing 3 pounds, so a sturdy glass vase displays your bouquet nicely until the big day. Good luck!