BelleFlower – Let Your Creativity Blossom Into Dazzling Imperfection

From $15 to $55* Flowers: How to Arrange Packaged Flowers

February 14, 2022February 14, 2022Craftingflower arranging, Valentine's Day

*Data based on a comparable arrangement from the Hy-Vee® floral section

So, Valentine’s Day is upon us and that means flowers. Now, you might be giving someone flowers and want to make them look like you didn’t just grab a bouquet from the shelves of the store. Or, perhaps you did receive flowers from the shelf of the grocery store, and you would prefer they appear more like you just burst out of an upscale florist. You’re in luck. With a few tricks and some small flourishes, you can do just that.

For this tutorial, I am using flowers from Menards®, which are $14.99 as of this posting. Menards® does not endorse this blog or content. I just happen to find their flowers are a decent quality for an extremely economical price. I also find it amusing that a hardware store sells flowers.

Step 1: Unwrap the flowers and assess them.

“Assess the flowers? This isn’t a math problem. Why do I have to assess them?” Bear with me here. Before you start sticking flowers in vases, see what you are working with. Are there a lot of tiny flowers? Do all the flowers have long stems or do you have to deal with some stubby flowers? Are some of the flowers squished or a little wilted? My bouquet had some Statice (the very small purple flowers) that were very wilted, so I knew that they was going to require extra cutting/grooming. To keep from damaging the flowers when opening them, I like to open the sleeve with a slit down the side.

Step 2: Groom your flowers

Now, you might have only ever heard the word “groom” in reference to you dog. Here, I mean picking off the wilted and blackened petals and taking off any dead or yellowed leaves. This will save you a lot of hassle later and allows you to really see what you are working with. In my bouquet, I had to pick off one or two dead leaves, a few discolored petals, and some dead flowers or empty stems. I then organized them by type to help with arranging. For roses, I save the petals I pull off due to bad spots and put them all in a clear bowl or scatter them around the vase. They won’t last very long, but they make pretty accents.

Step 3: Arrange your flowers on the table

I know you are just itching to start arranging in the vase but hold off for a minute. Once you start cutting the flowers, they need to be in water immediately, so you want to do as much as you possibly can before cutting and arranging in the vase. First, figure out what flowers you want together, the height you want them, and the design. This doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s just a rough estimate. Since I liked the color combination of the flowers in the bouquet, I kept them together and just worked on the arrangement. The key tip here is that smaller flowers go at the top of the arrangement and the larger ones go at the bottom.

Step 3: Pick an appropriate vase

Do you want all your flowers in the same vase? Do you want several smaller arrangements? This time I decided to keep all the flowers together, but last year I separated them into different arrangements as you can see at the top right. This is the time to decide these things. Or, on the other hand, if you have a particular vase you want to use, work backwards and decide which flowers would work best in that vase. This is the part of the process where you have to use some basic design principles. First, the arrangement is supposed to be two to three times the height of the vase. So, hold your flowers up to the vase. Are they going to look stubby? Too tall? Remember that you will have to cut some off the ends, so go off of the height of the shortest stems and subtract a few inches.

Next, you have to decide on the shape of your design. Do you want a round and short arrangement? A tall and thin one? Once you have decided, you can tailor your vase to that shape. A round arrangement needs a low, wide mouthed vase. A tall, thin arrangement needs a cylinder-shaped vase. The last thing you have to consider is style. Are you looking for a sophisticated look? A casual cottage garden vibe? The vase you choose should match that mood. For my arrangement, I liked how the hourglass shaped vase complemented the shape of the arrangement, so that was the one I chose to start with.

I say start with because as you get into the arrangement, you may find that another vase works better. That is totally normal. It makes for a few more vases to wash, but it is all part of the creative process. As a final note, if you were wanting to use a colored vase, you would need to take that into consideration when designing your color scheme during step 2.

Step 4: Put a small amount of regular water in the bottom of the vase

Why not fill the vase? you ask. The reason is that often when you are arranging flowers, you decide that you want to switch to another vase. This is more difficult when you have to transfer over all that water too. Also, if you squeeze too many flowers into one vase, the water can spurt out of the top and make a mess. However, you also can’t just leave the vase empty because that isn’t good for the flowers. They need to be in water immediately after being cut. So, put just enough water in the vase to keep the flowers happy, but not enough to cause a watery catastrophe or inconvenience.

Step 5: Construct a tape grid

I can feel you raising your eyebrow at me in confusion already. A tape grid is simply a way to stabilize the flowers while you are arranging them. You can use any tape, but clear obviously blends in the best. You can use full size clear tape, but I like to cut it in half so it is thinner. I find it is easiest to do this by attaching one end of the tape to a table edge and holding the other end out while cutting. Keep layering the tape until you have small, but not too tiny, boxes.

Step 6: Start trimming your ends and arranging

I know you are sitting there telling me it’s about time I got to the arranging part. I know, but preparation makes all the difference. Now you can start trimming the ends of your flowers. Cut the stems at a 45-degree angle instead of straight across. This helps the flowers absorb more water because they are not sitting flat against the bottom of the vase. Arrange the stems in the tape grid holes you just made.

Follow the same principles as when arranging the flowers on the table. Thinnest or smallest flowers should be the tallest and the biggest ones should be the shortest. Although you can make an arrangement that you are only supposed to look at from one side, I try to rotate my vase as I arrange so that you can view it from all sides once it’s finished. Another tip is to make sure no leaves are going to be below the lip of the vase. This can cause mold and mildew issues, severely limiting the life of your arrangement. Remember that no two flowers of the same kind should be at exactly the same level. The key here to creating depth is layering the flowers and placing them at different levels. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules in floral arranging. Experiment and see what you like. If you need to re-trim the ends as you are arranging, that is perfectly fine. For instance, in the very last photo you can see I trimmed the end of the two tallest flowers to fit with the rest of the arrangement.

I want to stop for a minute to talk about my treatment of the Statice. In most arrangements, you will come across some flowers that need special attention. Here, most of the stems of the statice were black and moldy. So, I cut off the flowers above the mold and removed the dead or broken flowers. This meant that although the Statice would normally be right under the top flowers because of its size, it had to go at the lip of the vase because of the shortened stems. Another special case here was the daisies. For them, you usually have to strip off the lower flower buds so they will fit into the tape grid and not be below the lip of the vase.

Step 7: Finish off the arrangement

Some of you are probably asking what you do with the tape grid once you are done. There are two options. If you have more greenery or small flowers, you can fill in the bottom of the arrangement with those to hide it. If not, I usually just take off the tape grid. You can see I did that in the first picture of the last row up above. The arrangement looks a little less polished, but it is not a large difference. The one exception to this rule is with roses. They need the tape grid, or they will not stay in place. At this stage you can cut down, rearrange, and fluff the flowers as needed. At the end, you can tuck any small flowers that you had to strip off around the base of the arrangement.

Step 8: Put in the rest of the water

Use the accompanying flower food packet (if provided) and put in the rest of the water into the vase. If possible, use non-chlorinated water.

Step 9: Step back and admire your work

Congratulations! You now have a flower arrangement instead of a sleeve of flowers stuck into a vase. At this point, you may not be completely satisfied with your arrangement. That’s ok. It doesn’t have to look perfect to be lovely. The motto here at Belleflower is “Let your creativity blossom into dazzling imperfection.” Whatever it looks like, you put in the effort to make it and that gives it its own worth.

Special Notes for Roses:

Now that we are at the end, there are a few special notes for roses. First, roses are, in my opinion, some of the very hardest flowers to arrange. So, if you are having difficulties with them, don’t despair. Since all the flowers will be roughly the same size, you will need to focus on which flower head is the smallest to decide which flower should be tallest. In addition, it is especially important to vary the heights of the flowers. Finally, I usually strip off most or all of the leaves because they are so prone to damage.

There you have it! From a sleeve of cheap flowers to a nice arrangement all with just some clear tape, scissors, and a vase of some sort. I hope this tutorial has helped you figure out what to do with that bunch of flowers sitting on the kitchen counter, and that you had some fun along the way.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Marble Nails Tutorial and Troubleshooting

July 5, 2021Nail ArtDIY Nail Art, Marble nailsLeave a Comment

You saw the marble nail trend and knew you had to have those lovely swirls. Two hours later you are crying in frustration at blobs of goo that look nothing like the photos. Sound familiar? If so, you are in the right place my friend.

I would go into a long story about the day I decided I loved marble nails and my long…long journey to get them right. However, you are here for answers and answers you will get. For starters, I am going to address specific troubleshooting errors as I get to them in the tutorial. So if you know you have a problem at a specific part, just jump ahead to that part of the tutorial. And, if you want a way to redeem your botched nails scroll to the very end of the post.

You are in luck though. The very first step and ingredient is the most. I repeat the most crucial piece to changing your nails from a blob to a pleasing swirl.

The nail polish

If you have a polish that spreads onto the water like this….

You’re doomed. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true. If your cup looks like this then your nails will look like this

It won’t matter how carefully you position your finger or how slowly/quickly you dip your finger in. I used the polish that did end up working and tested both of those variables and it simply makes no difference.

Now that I have shown you what it should not look like, here’s what it should do.

“Ok, you’ve made your point. How do we get the right polish though?” Excellent question. My best answer…trial and error. This is part of the reason I do not recommend marble nails for beginners. To find a polish that works correctly, you just have to buy it and try it. Some people will say that certain brands work, but I found that even within the same brand there are large differences. For instance, in that first photo the polish I am using is Sally Hansen® White on Time polish and the Sally Hansen® Insta-Dri Black to Black polish. These did not work. However, the Sally Hansen® Xtreme Wear Hard as Nails® Red-ical Rockstar (second picture) did work. In that same brand though, the Xtreme Wear™ Pacific Blue did not work. So, I can’t tell you to use a specific brand or even a specific line. My best advice is to gather together what nail polish you have and drop it onto the water until you find polish that works. It isn’t very scientific, but when I find a better way to tell I will let y’all know. I will say that the newer and thinner the polish, the more likely it will work.

The Rest of the Supplies

A cup or some sort of dish. Nothing fancy is needed. I used a yogurt cup, but you could use an old mug or cup. The goal is to use something that your mom won’t scream at when she finds you are using it for nail polish.
Room temperature water. The temperature of the water affects the spreading of the polish so if you find that your polish is not spreading as well, check the temperature. I usually fill my cup with half hot and half cold water from the tap to get the right temperature.
Toothpicks. You will need a toothpick for creating your pattern and getting the polish off the surface of the water. I use 1 toothpick per nail, but I would get out extra if you are just beginning.
Petroleum Jelly. This is to put around your nail for easier cleanup. I tried glue and that worked ok, but I prefer the jelly. Slather that stuff all over your nail probably at least up to halfway to the joint of your finger on both front and back. However, be careful that you don’t put too much right next to your nail or when you take it off it will smear onto your design.
A plastic sandwich bag. I use this to put the toothpicks on so I don’t have to go all the way to my trashcan every time. It also helps to have the toothpick handy for the cleaning the polish off the water.
Small strips of paper towel for cleaning and for putting under your cup. Water marbling is a messy business and with the petroleum jelly approach you are going to need something to clean up the mess. I prefer small strips rather than a whole paper towel because it doesn’t drag through other nails as I clean.

“When is she going to actually get to a tutorial?!” Right now.

Paint your nails white. I have seen people who use one of the colors they are planning to drip into the water as their basecoat, but I have not had much success with this. It might work if you had a really dark color, but I found with the light colors it did not pop like the white undercoat did. As you can see in this picture, I did my ring finger with the yellow undercoat instead of white and it looks more washed out.

Pick at least two colors of polish that will spread as mentioned above (test this and your pattern before dipping your nail in)
Open your polish bottles (You need to be speedy for this to work so leave those bottles open, but please close them afterwards. I have lost bottles of polish that way)
drop the polish from close to the the surface of the water in a bullseye fashion.
Keep alternating your polishes until you get about 6 or 8 rings. I don’t have a set number for this, but make sure it is enough that the pattern will look interesting and not just stripes.
Use a toothpick to create your design of choice (which you have practiced beforehand). I like to pull in the polish from the edges to create a scalloped pattern, but you can do whatever you want. Also, I heard this from CutePolish (which does not endorse this blog, I am just giving credit to them for this idea). Don’t start at the very outermost ring of the polish as it has already dried. Start a ring or two in and start dragging from there. My design ended up looking like this

Find a part of the pattern that you like (it will end up looking exactly like this on your nail so be choosy here).
Dip your nail in and hold it under the water while the polish on top dries. Now, I tested this out and it does not matter what angle you do this at or how quickly you do it, so don’t stress about this too much.
After the polish on top has dried, pull it off with the toothpick being careful to keep your finger in the same place and to not poke your design.
Now, pull your finger out of water with your nail the last to come out. Your nail should be flat coming out of the water. Before you go stressing, this particular part is not crucial. You can pull it out any way you want. This method just cuts down on the water left on your nail. If you do get water on your nail, very carefully use the corner of a paper towel piece to just barely graze the top of the water droplet. It will absorb the water and you’re good to go!
Your finger now looks like a giant mess so start wiping off the petroleum jelly with the paper towel pieces. Be very careful around your nail as the jelly can rub onto the nail and cause distortions of your pattern. If you really want to get all the paint off of your cuticle, wait until the polish has dried and then go get in the pool or soak your nail. The polish will come off your skin, but not off the nail (although it might come off your nail so do this with caution).
You did it! Now pat yourself on the back (with the other hand of course).
I would not recommend putting on a clear topcoat until at least the next day, if at all. If you do it the same day the polish will bleed with the brush strokes (It actually looks kind of neat, but it’s a whole different look).

Now I do one nail at a time so I don’t mess up my other nails. I did try dipping in two nails at once and while it does work, it is much harder to control the pattern that ends up on your nail. Also, try your very best to resist the urge to clean up your nail bed with nail polish remover until the design has completely dried. When you do use remover, I would recommend a Q-tip instead of a cotton ball. The cotton ball can rub the polish off your other nails when you aren’t looking. And finally, with water marbling you will never get all your nails to look the same. There will be one or two you absolutely adore and a couple you really want to redo. If you want perfection, go to a salon. If you want adventure, try water marbling.

Here is the finished product.

I added some white dots for a patriotic feel and to cover up any chips revealing the white undercoat.

Trick to Redeem Botched Nails

So you’re reading this because you are already in tears with frustration because you have two terrible nails and a party in four hours. I can help. If you just do not have the right polish or you have already ruined a few nails and do not want to go back, there is a way to greatly increase the appearance of your nails. They will not look like marble nails, but they do have their own allure. The secret is to let your pattern dry for several hours (preferably a whole night) and then go over them once or twice with a swipe of cotton ball with nail polish remover. Here is the difference.

Pretty cool huh? No, they aren’t your normal marble nails, but I kind of like them. You can also just leave them as they are at first and it can also look cool.

And with that, I will close this tutorial and troubleshooting. The main take away is that if your nails do not look like the pictures online, the most likely culprit is your nail polish. Once you find a nail polish that works, marble nails are pretty easy (time consuming, but easy). And, if your nails don’t turn out like you want, try the nail polish remover trick. I hope that this post has helped you conquer marble nails and finally get that photo worthy DIY mani!

Here’s to your “marbel”ous nails!

More than Hostas: Practical Tips for Shade Gardening

January 17, 2021January 17, 2021GardeningGardening, ShadeLeave a Comment

Shade…it’s like the bad word of the gardening world. I will admit, my shady nook almost turned me into an envious and bitter gardener for life. My garden style preference would probably be the lovable jumble of a cottage garden. Just one problem, most of those plants need lots of sun and I live in the middle of the woods. Sigh. I kept trying to force plants to grow in the lovely shade of large mature trees and gazed longingly at pictures of people with sun all day long. Then one night as I looked at the outline of the oaks in our yard, I realized how beautiful my yard was and that I was going about my gardening all wrong. God nudged me that night to be grateful for what we are given and that burdens can become blessings if we let them.

“I thought you said there were tips?” I know. I rambled. Here are the tips I promised.

Get the right key words to put into your online searches. I know you are looking at me like I just lost my mind, but seriously, it’s a big deal. If you just put “shade gardening” into your online search, you are going to come up with a lot of general information that may or may not be all that helpful. Mostly because shade is a really big topic. For starters, there are different kinds and levels of shade. I have woodland shade because of all the trees, but shade from objects like walls has its own set of tips. So for shade caused by trees use words like “woodland gardening,” “plants for dappled light” and “understory plants.” If you have shade caused by your house use phrases like, “plants for the east side of the house.” In short, use as precise wording as possible and try different variations to get the best results.

Look to nature for your pattern. This one seems obvious, but it took me a while to realize. I realized that in a natural forest there is a lot of color in the spring, cool greens in the summer, and lots of color in the fall. So, to ask my garden to be overflowing with color in the summer was just plain silly. That doesn’t mean no color mind you, just not marigold and red daylily color. It also meant that I focused my attention on color in the spring and fall and left summer to greens and whites. Since I don’t actually like being outside in summer, but love fall and spring, I realized I didn’t need four seasons of color. I also realized that in a natural forest, flowers are usually more delicate and have more muted tones. That helped me with color scheme choices. It’s a whole lot easier to borrow from God’s garden than to re-invent the wheel.

Plant Bulbs. “She created a short bullet point?!” Yeah, it shocked me too. Anyway, I haven’t tried this tip intentionally yet, but I have seen it in the flowers already planted in my yard. Because bulbs bloom before deciduous trees leaf out, they can get a lot more sun than plants that bloom later. Translation: you can grow sun plants in shade as long as they are early blooming bulbs! Not all bulbs work for this because some bulbs need their foliage to be in the sun longer than the trees don’t have leaves, but the basic principle is solid. Siberian Squill is a favorite in my yard and looks adorable underneath the trees.

Enjoy the shade and make use of the sun. Unless you live with trees as a wall around your house, you probably don’t have complete shade everywhere. Where I live there are parts of the yard that get part shade, part sun, and even full sun in spots. So, work with your shady areas, but use the sunny areas to satisfy your longing for vibrant color. Also, see your yard as little areas instead of one big area. While the big picture is helpful, take a small area of your yard and categorize the sun it gets then move on to another. This helps with plant choices and with keeping your sanity intact.

I realize those tips might seem basic, but it took me several years to learn all these and to come to grips with my shady space. I’ve now come to realize that I love the woodland garden look and that in finding that type of garden, I found my inspiration. Forcing cottage garden plants to go with a house in the woods would have left everything looking wrong and would have left me disappointed. So with that I leave you with this last tip, match your garden with its surrounding. In other words, don’t try and force a lemon to be an orange, let it be an orange because it would make a miserable lemon.

This is a list of plants that I love in my shady garden:

Hosta: It’s popular for a reason. They really are the backbone of the shade garden, but they aren’t the only thing in a shade garden.

Lungwort: Terrible name for a lovely flower. Lungwort has heart shaped leaves with spots and little bell-like flowers of three different colors in the spring.

Siberian Squill: It’s just so plain adorable, who could resist it?

Hydrangea: I am a big fan of the white varieties because they fit the woodland garden theme best. I did have Oakleaf Hydrangeas and thought I would put here that they were amazing, but I never could get the Asian beetles to stop eating them so I finally cut them down.

Columbine: It’s just amazing. It looks fantastic, is very colorful, grows in shade, and has adorable foliage.

Bleeding Heart: I have not had many Bleeding Heart bushes, but I loved the one I did have.

Dutchman’s Breeches: An under appreciated plant. It looks kind of like upside down Bleeding Heart flowers and is very endearing.

(Please note that these plants may not grow in your zone, check a zone map or your local extension before planting)

I never said it was a long list. I am, after all, still learning how to create woodland and shade gardens and have not personally tried too many plants.

You stayed to the end? I’m impressed. I really hope this has helped you with your shade gardening journey and that it reminds you to stop and enjoy the shade instead of vilifying it. Good luck and may your hostas never have slugs!