Fall Centerpieces (Part 2) - Adding Foliage & Florals

Ready for part two of those fall centerpieces?  Let's go:

(You can click here in case you missed the previous post)

Prepped Vase

Now remember where we left off, we had our foam cut to the size of our vases and wrapped in a satin ribbon/ burlap combo.  With our vases prepped we are ready to dive into our florals, but before we place any stems.....

Organize

.....I recommend organizing your materials first.  Here you can see the florals organized into three sections; foliage, filler and flowers.

Foliage First

I like to begin with my greenery first (even when it's not green anymore 😉) and begin by breaking down my large store-bough bushes into smaller, more manageable stems.  

Note:  The manner in which you cut apart your stems is going to depend largely on the container you are using and the eventual look you are going for.  Since I wanted to end up with round, full centerpieces that were low enough for guests to talk over, I cut my stems into about 6" lengths with the bottom 2" being composed of stem only.  So that's 4" lengths of foliage, 2" lengths of stem.

After all of the large bushes had been cut down, I then went through and separated them into five piles, one pile for each vase.  I find that when I divide my materials before I begin to fill vases, it is much easier  to achieve a consistent look.  Not only does each vase have a supply of similar looking material, but one vase doesn't end up more full or compact than another - in other words, I didn't start strong and then run low on material by the time I got to the last vase 😅

Begin Placing Foliage

When 'greening' a container, I like to start with a minimum of five stems.  I place one directly in the center followed by one at each corner.  After that I fill in between 'corners' until I have the basic shape of the arrangement fleshed out.  Your greens are going to help create shape and cover the foam, but don't have to completely hide everything at this point.  In fact, adding too many stems of foliage will crowd your vase and make stem placement harder.

Also, note how the photo on top looks quite a bit 'rougher' than the photo on the bottom.  Don't stress!  The beauty of working with artificial materials is that they can be easily adjusted.  Just place your stems and then go back to gently bend or twist as needed until you are happy with their appearance.

Three Large Floral Bushes

Once my containers were greened, I went through and organized the flowers in the same way.  Notice how I pushed the leaves all of the way up the stems.  When you purchase an artificial floral bush, they usually contain a great deal of foliage all of the way down to the base.  I like to push the greenery up because adds volume to the blooms as well as makes the cutting easier.

Divide the Florals

Similar to the greens, I divided the blooms into five separate piles as well.  There never seems to be the exact same distribution of blooms between bunches, so you may have to get creative in your sorting.  I like to make sure that each arrangement gets at least one large flower as a focal point.

Add Flowers

Begin adding flowers on all sides of the vase similar as to with the foliage.  You can see from the top photo that things can start out a bit funky, but with adjustments and patience things will end up just fine,

Tip:  Try to avoid taking a stem completely out of the foam and re-inserting.  Having unfilled holes in the foam weakens the structure and can lead to cracking.

Filler

Filler flowers can be long and linear (like those pictured here) or bushy and compact like Babies Breath.  What makes them 'filler' is the fact that they complement more prominent flowers and fill in any negative spaces. I sorted and cut down the filler stems just as I did with the foliage and floral bushes.

And Done

Look what a difference a little bit of filler makes to the overall composition, it really takes the arrangement to another level!

And that's how easy it is to create your own fall centerpieces.
I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018

Fall Centerpieces (Part 1) - Prepping Floral Containers

Recently, my Husband's parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a dinner party.  Not only did I get the honor of putting together their floral centerpieces, but I got to spend a couple hours wandering around Hobby Lobby with my MIL (that's short for Mother-In-Law in case you were wondering 😊)

So now I'm taking a bit of a break from the mermaid birthday party to share how you can create fall centerpieces just like these.  Don't worry, I'll still share how I made those clamshell cookies and jellyfish lanterns, but for today read how to prep containers for your own floral designs:

Supplies

For this party I was making five separate floral arrangements.  That means we needed five containers (the square glass vases you see here), floral foam and something to cover up the foam - my MIL chose a combination of satin ribbon and burlap.

Do you have to use floral foam?  Nope, it's all up to you, the arrangements you are making and the overall look you are going for.  Since I was using artificial flowers and wanted the arrangements to be protected from jostling around (more permanent) I opted to go with foam.

You could certainly fill your container with small stones or marbles to help keep your stems in place or not worry about it at all and leave everything up to the Universe 😁  However, the shorter the container means the greater the likelihood that once placed, the stems are going to shift or fall out completely.  This is because the balance between the amount of stem available and the larger (heavier) head of the flower is off and they like to tip over.

Note:  This is true whether you are using artificial or fresh flowers, but make sure that if you do go with the foam option, you use the right kind of foam.  For the artificial flowers in this post I used styrofoam.  Fresh flowers, however, need a soakable floral foam.  This is foam that (once soaked according to directions) provides a water supply for the flowers and keeps them fresher longer.  Both kinds of foam can be purchased at your local craft store.

Bonus Tip:  Need styrofoam but only have the fresh flower foam available to you?  Wrap that dry, dusty, crumbly brick of foam up tightly in plastic wrap and proceed as you would with styrofoam.  It's a little less sturdy than styrofoam, so you'll need to be careful, but it will get the job done 😉

Moving on...

Cutting the Foam

Sometimes you can find styrofoam pre-cut into the size you are needing and sometimes you can't.  We could have chosen 'bricks' that were a bit too big and cut them down to size, but it would have created a lot of waste in addition to costing a lot more.  It made more sense to purchase one large cube and cut it down into several smaller cubes.

I did this using a cutting board and serrated knife.  Simply cut the cube in half, and half, and in half and so on until you have the amount of smaller cubes you need.  Then trim each cube until it fits neatly into your container.

*When I said 'simply' that was a joke.  It takes a bit of muscle to cut down a lot of dense styrofoam with a regular knife so have yourself a protein bar first 😁  Or you could invest in a styrofoam knife for around $20-$25 and save yourself a lot of trouble 😎

Containers Ready

Here you can see that my foam is cut down and prepped to fit the containers.  I intentionally left them a little tall so that I would have more surface area to work with.  I did not, however,  plan on the gap that you can see between the foam and the bottom of the vases.

I didn't realize until this point that the vases were convex in design and sloped inward at the base.  I was going to apply a bit of glue to the bottom of the foam (after the flowers had been arranged) so that the foam wouldn't move around, but you can see that that wasn't going to happen with the cube shape of the foam.  I toyed with the idea of cutting the foam at a slant as well, but I knew I was planning on wrapping the foam in ribbon and wanted sharp corners for a nice, clean look.

This kind of thing happens all the time in design.  You start out with one idea in mind and you get derailed by something unexpected.  The trick is to not worry about it and keep moving forward.  Eventually you will think of something creative to solve the problem, so there's no reason to waste valuable time stressing out.

I figured we could hide the gap with a bit of foliage, marbles or stones at the bottom.  As it turned out, the arrangements looked ok with the gap and my MIL left them as they were!

Covering the Foam

Here's where the satin and burlap ribbon combination came in.  My MIL wanted a rustic burlap look, but the foam was visible through the open weave material.  We decided to pair it with satin to cover the foam and give the burlap an extra pop.  The contrast between the rustic burlap and elegant satin turned out to be really pretty.

Layer One

Starting at the bottom of each foam cube, I began using hot glue to attach the ribbon in place.  Notice that I made sure to line the ribbon up evenly with the bottom and left no overhang.  How did I determine the 'bottom'?  Each cube had one nice perfect side (from being cut at the factory) and one rough side from me and my serrated knife 😎

Once the first layer was complete, I added in a second.  This section of ribbon is layered slightly over the first (we don't want any green peeking through) and peeks up over the top of the cube.  This was intentional and you'll see why in a minute.  But first let me point out that depending on the size of your cube, you may not cover the entire thing with just two strips of ribbon.  No biggie, just continue to wrap in the same manner pictured here, making sure that the last layer leaves a bit of excess at the top.

The Fold

Now that we are all wrapped, let's deal with that excess ribbon.  I allowed for this extra bit so that it could be neatly folded over the top of the cube.  First I glued the corners down and then followed up with the sides.  This allowed a nice, neat finish to the factory cut side of the cube.

Now, so far I've been calling this the 'bottom' and it was - but now that it's finished off so nicely, let's flip it over so the raw edge of the cube is now the top and add that burlap.

Burlap

I added the burlap in a similar manner, simply glueing one strip around the middle.  You can see here in the photo why it was important to flip the cube over - now the nice, clean folded over bottom of the cube is visible at through the base of the vase with the raw edge at the top.  This raw edge is going to be covered with flowers and foliage so eventually everything that is visible will be pretty.  When I worked in the floral shop we called this "hiding our secrets" 😊

Note:  I want to point out that even though the bottom of the cube is nicely covered in folded ribbon, it still features a big huge square of exposed foam.  I cannot tell you how much this bugs me!  I mean, what if we are at the party and someone drops a fork, leans over, looks up from the bottom and sees this uncovered foam?!?  Gasp!  It pained me to leave it this way, but not knowing if my MIL would want to add marbles or stones or what-have-you I left the foam exposed in case I needed to glue anything to it.   Like I said earlier, it turned out that she opted to go with the arrangements how they were.....and the only people on the floor of the restaurant were my own children and a couple of cousins, so there you go.  Things are working out for me 😆

And that's where I'll leave things off today.
In part two I'll show you how to prep and add stems into your fall centerpieces and then I promise I'll get back to our birthday party fun! 

Oh, and before I forget, check out the new 'World Audience' page that I published today.  Simply look to the top right section of this blog and click on the World Audience tab to learn about the readers of Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams, and maybe even take part in the selfie challenge 😀

I hope you enjoyed this how-to post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018

Mermaid Party Baking - Layer Cake

Welcome back for our mermaid party baking details!  

Today I'm sharing all about these beautiful purple and blue layer cakes:

Supplies

For these cakes I used two boxes of Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix, two containers of Funfetti purple icing, one container of  Betty Crocker blue cupcake icing and a selection of colorful sprinkles.

Note:  At this point I wasn't sure if I would use the colorful sprinkles or the metallic, but I like to have everything on hand when I start.  I find that when things are within my sight it helps me to visualize the creative possibilities.

Tip:  I knew I wouldn't be using the sprinkles that are attached to the Funfetti icing containers, but purchased them anyway for the ready to go purple color of the icing.  I find that this is a great way to build up your stash of on-hand sprinkles for times when the kids want to play/ decorate and you don't want to bust out your best stock 😉

Pans

My daughter requested that this time her cake have three layers of colors arranged in a gradient from darkest to lightest, so I used three round pans for each of the cakes.

Tip:  I like to spray my pans heavily with non-stick spray so that the cakes come out easily once baked.

Food Coloring

Once the batter was mixed I divided it into three bowls.  In the first bowl I put 20 drops of purple, in the second bowl I used 10 drops of purple and in the final bowl I used 20 drops of the blue.  This ended up creating two shades of purple and one shade of blue.

Divide & Bake

Once I was satisfied with the shades of color I divided the batter between the six pans, making sure that each size of pan got one of the colors.

Layers of Color

Starting with the mini cake first, I layered the cake going from darkest to lightest starting at the bottom.  You could do this in reverse in you choose, but visually it makes sense to have darker (heavier) shades at the bottom.

In keeping with the under the sea mermaid theme, I chose to use my Jadeite colored cake stands for this party.  You can read more about these by clicking  here.

'Crumb Layer'

Now hear is a total game changer.  I was over at Just a Girl and her Blog by Abby Lawson when I came across this cake baking post.  In it she describes applying a 'crumb layer' to a cake before completely icing it.  

What does that mean?  Well you know how often times when you first start to ice your freshly baked cakes a bit of the surface will pull up creating a mess of crumbs?  Well if you gently apply a thin layer of icing and then pop the cake into the fridge or freezer, the icing will 'seal' the cake.  Then you can apply the rest of your icing without having to deal with all of the annoying mess.  Abby recommends using the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours.  I didn't have that much time to spare so I tried out the freezer (about 10 minutes) and it worked well for me.

Shout Out:  You know when you find a blog so good that you have to go back through the archives and start at the very beginning even though it's 5 years old? That's this blog, trust me!  So far I've made it to about May of 2014, and I'm loving every post.  Abby shares tips about decorating, organizing and blogging, as well as moments from every day life.  Head on over and check it out sometime, you won't be disappointed:

Just a Girl and her Blog

Unexpected Tip

Unsure of exactly how I would use the cupcake icing, I decided to try the star shaped tip and practice on a small plate.  This was a good decision because even though I had shaken the can of icing really well, it still came out separated and runny for a bit.  I would have panicked if this runny mess had ended up on the pretty cake!

Note:  These cans of icing come with four separate tips allowing various designs with the icing.  I think the star shape is my favorite 😊

Stars & Sprinkles

I ended up placing a row of stars around the base of the cake and topped it off with blue sprinkles on top.  Remember all those sprinkles I had out to begin with?  I only used a little bit of blue 😁

Storage

A couple of days to go until the party meant that the cakes needed to go into cold storage.  Usually I would just put the glass dome on top, but this particular set of cake stands runs a little smaller than my clear glass sets.  Not a problem though, just insert a toothpick (or several for a larger cake) and lightly drape plastic wrap over the cake.  Any smudges to the icing that occur can be gently smoothed out at the time of the party.

Guest Cake

I assembled the guest cake in the same way as I did the miniature cake and popped it into the freezer.  Why the freezer?  Because with all of the party food prep I ran out of fridge space in the house and in the garage.  The freezer is great if you want to store your cakes a little longer, just make sure to take them out earlier on the day of the event so that they have time to thaw.  Also, frozen cakes tend to condense once they meet room temperature.  I wasn't thinking about that when I placed this large stand on top of a decorative paper napkin and by the time the party began there was a bit of moisture at the bottom of the stand.  Not a super big deal, but something I would have avoided if I had thought of it beforehand 😉

Ready to Party!

I'll have posts coming up with the rest of the details from our mermaid birthday party including those adorable clamshell cookies you can see in the photo above😍

Want more party fun right now?  Check out these birthday baking links:

Strawberry Shortcake Party
Hunting Themed Birthday
Frozen Birthday Party
Construction Themed Birthday
Lalaloopsy Birthday Party
Pirate Themed Birthday
Candy Birthday Party
Thomas the Train Themed Birthday


I hope you enjoyed this party baking post, thanks for stopping by!
-Jennifer

© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018

Mermaid Birthday - Party Preview

Welcome to our mermaid birthday party preview!

Come in and take a look at our undersea decor:

Jellyfish Balloon Displays

Sand & Seashell Table Decor

Fishbowl Display

Pink, Purple & Auqua Tableware

(The little nose in the upper left hand corner is my favorite part of this picture 😍)

Dessert Station & Seaweed Background

Guest Cake

Mini Cake

Goldfish Treats

Clamshell Cookies


I'll have posts coming soon that detail the jellyfish balloon displays, tabletop decor, cakes and clamshell cookies. 

Update:

Jellyfish Lanterns

Table Top Decor

Layer Cake

Clamshell Cookies

Invitations

I hope you enjoyed this preview post, thanks for stopping by!


-Jennifer

© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018

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This post was added to the following link parties:

Inspire Me Tuesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

All About Home

Wonderful Wednesday

Your Whims Wednesday

Creative Crafts Linky Party

Thursday Favorite Things

Friday Favorites

You're The Star

The Really Crafty Link Party

Meraki Link Party

Launch Party!

Welcome to the first post of Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams!

(Imagine that I'm tossing shiny, golden confetti and handing out chocolate cupcakes 😎)

If you've been following along, you'll know that this blog is a relaunch of my previous brand; Jennifer Adams Flowers (JAF).  When I started the JAF blog (about 4 years ago) it was right after becoming a stay at home mom.  I was using my skills as a floral designer to create and sell artificial flower wedding sets on Ebay and wanted a place to showcase my work, as well as share all of the crafty things I do in my daily life.  Well guess what?  Things have been going well and I find myself branching out in many areas other than just flowers.  It's been bugging me for awhile that the JAF name is so limiting, and I've been working for the past several weeks to rebrand under a new name.  I'm thrilled to have you all join me at Studio 27!  Read on to learn more:

What's the same:

The Overall Look-  I've been careful to maintain the overall theme of my blog and you will find the familiar red rose background and mauve-y pink accents in place.

The Posts- I have imported all 300+ posts from the previous blog.  Yes, that's right. Every single post ever published since 2014 is right here and available for reading all in one place (You can find the post archives on the right of this page or search for posts using the 'search this blog' feature below the archives).  In order to make things less complicated, I've gone through and updated each post using my new streamlined set of labels.  I'll explain more about those labels in a bit 😉

Pinterest- While I have updated the name and board covers of my Pinterest account, I have kept all of my old blog photos in place.  These photos will continue to link to the associated JAF posts so that Pinterest users can access blog content easily.  You can click here to reach me on Pinterest.

The Old Blog- Though I will not continue to post at JAF, I will leave the blog open for browsing.

What's new:

The Name- Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams is the name of the new blog.  I have also taken steps to update the name for my Ebay Store and Etsy shop.

Social Media- I have created a new Facebook page that you can follow along by clicking here

Contact Info-  You can now reach me by email at Studio27byJenniferAdams@gmail.com
Make sure to subscribe (look for a 'subscribe here' box at the right of this post) to follow along by email!

Shopping- I have a created a new 'Shop Studio 27' tab that takes you to the page containing links for my Ebay store and Etsy Shop.  You will find this tab located at the top of the blog's homepage. 
Note:  While the  Ebay store is fully stocked, the Etsy shop is still 'under construction'.  I've got a few things in mind for this shop though, so check back in the near future 😉

Labels- Instead of the multiple labels found on the old blog (there were more than 30 and you know I hate clutter 😊), I have streamlined my topics into the following 9 labels:

*At Home*
This label will cover the previously separate JAF categories of:

-Gardening
-Home Decor
-How We Celebrated
-Humor
-My Life in Pictures



*Blogging*
This label is new and I'm really excited about it!  After spending the last few years blogging I have learned quite a bit about what it takes to create a blog and an associated brand.  Since a large part of that is design related, I thought it would be fitting to share a bit of my experience here.  As of now, you will not be able to locate a 'Blogging' label tab to click on, but as soon as I've posted content with the 'Blogging' label attached, the new tab will appear at the top of the homepage with the rest of the labels.



*Budgeting*
Similar to the Blogging label, this new category will appear once related content is published.



*Design*
This label is a big one and will contain the following JAF subjects:

-Painting
-Printables
-Sewing/ Quilting
-Crafty Fun
-Scrapbooking
-Flowers
-Hair Accessories
-Hand & Foot Print Art
-Kids Crafts
-Photography
-Photoshop
-Wreaths
-Restyle
-Upcycle
-Happy Customers


*Treasure Hunting & Thrifting*
You know I can't leave out my obsession with garage sales and thrift stores.  I'll continue to talk about these experiences under the 'Treasure Hunting & Thrifting' label as well as include the topics of Restyle and Upcycle when appropriate.


The Remaining Labels:
(These labels will function in the same way that they did on the JAF blog)
*Party*
*Holiday House*
*Clean & Organize*
*How To*
*The Bakery*

Whew, that was a lot of technical info, lets get back to those imaginary cupcakes 😅

Whether you've followed me from the old blog or are joining Studio 27 by Jennifer Adams for the first time, I'm glad to have you.  I look forward to the journey to come and thanks for stopping by!

-Jennifer

© Studio 27 - By Jennifer Adams 2018