Transcript:
Hi, friends, this is Carmen! Welcome back to my channel today. I’m going to be showing you how to make these succulent boutonnieres and corsages are super easy to make. I’m gonna start with some of the succulents that I’ve received from Mountain Crest Gardens. These are cuttings that I received in various shapes and sizes, and I also went outside and picked some foliage from around my apartment complex. Some rosemary, some beads, some flowers from a Red Yucca, and I’m going to be using all of these. I’m trying to use all natural products, No artificial flowers or anything. I’ve got some 22 gauge wire and some floral tape to bind everything together and I’ll need also a wire cutter, Some scissors and then also some ribbon, whether it be just regular ribbon or maybe even some lace ribbon, so let’s get started ! The first one we’re gonna make is with a kalanchoe Tomentosa panda plant. You can see it has dried B stem there and a calloused over, and I did take off a couple of leaves down at the bottom just to make it a little bit smaller for a boutonniere. I’m using 22 gauge wire to pierce the stem. This is going to make it easier for us to hold everything together. Now you want to be careful with your fingers. When you’re piercing the wire through that, you don’t poke yourself visit. These are sharp and it will draw blood. Push it halfway through, bend it over, and you’re gonna want to twist some of the wires to give, and you’re gonna secure all this with the floral tape. Now, the stickiness of the floral tape activates when you stretch it, so you’re gonna place it at the very base of the stem, twisting and pulling the tape gently. You pull too hard. It will break, but you can start again where it broke and then just twist along and combine all of the wire together. Now I did cut the very tip of that to make sure that there was no wire poking out there. Now you’re gonna get your leaves. I dig take off some of the bottom leaves on on these little stems to give me a full stem. Layering here is what you’re gonna be doing little beads That are off of this bush. Just adjust as you feel needed. Then bring in your succulents and adjust it, holding everything together with your left fingers, adding one last little detail there, and you’re gonna be securing all of this with some floral tape again, start at the very base, and when you’re securing all of these pieces together, I would go around the base at least three or four times to make sure that everything is holding together because this succulent can be a little bit top-heavy. So you want to make sure that you’ve got it secured at the very top there and then start working your way down again. Pull gently on the tape and working your way down, and that will combine all of your pieces. Now that everything is combined. I’m going to add one last little detail to the end here. I’m taking a marker or pen, and you can use a pencil. Whatever you want and simply twirling it up to add a little curlicue detail to this boutonniere. Since it’s a wire, it’s easy to curl it up, and that adds a cute little detail to this boutonniere. The final detail will be this purl pin. This is what will be used to attach the boutonniere to a lapel. And there you are our first boutonniere. Complete the next boutonniere. We’re gonna do is with some rosemary. I’ve taken off the bottom leaves and taped it together. We’re going to use this flower from a red Yucca and this blue echeverria on these red Yucca buds. I’m going to take off some of the bottom buds and also cut it, so I can have a little bit of a stem to be able to combine everything together. On the set of area, there’s just about an inch or so maybe half an inch of stem there, So I’m going to use my 22 gauge wire and Pierce it right through the base there again. Be careful with your fingers. Sometimes you really do have to apply some pressure and you’re gonna push it through going about half way and then bend the wire down and twist them together and this will make them ready to be taped together. And this little Chavarria has actually a little baby at the bottom. It’s gonna be okay when we’re done with all of these once. The wedding or the event is all over. All of these succulents will be able to be taken apart and planted, so those little babies will be just fine, and we start our floral tape here at the base again, gently tugging at it to activate the stickiness of it and twirling all the way down to combine the wires. Now we’re getting ready to layer and combine all of our pieces. Together, we have the rosemary in the back, the sprig of Red Yucca Flowers and the echeverria in the front again at the base start twirling it. Make sure that you tape at least three or four times right at the base before starting to slowly move down and combining all of the pieces. Once all the pieces have been combined. I’m going to use this ribbon to give it a little bit of a finishing touch. I’ve stretched it out and laid it on the back about two or three inches, and then I’m going to start wrapping it around the wire, all the way down to the end and then coming back up, so it’s gonna be a double layer of ribbon on the stem here. Then you can definitely just go down to the bottom, cut it and even secure it with some hot glue and just leave the little bit of ribbon at the top there, and I decided to go back up and I’m going to tie it once I get to the top and what I do here Is I loop a piece around my thumb, securing it holding it with my thumb. I cut off about three or four inches and bring that piece and loop it into the piece I was holding and that will tie a knot and then there will be two pieces in the back of the boutonniere. And that will secure it. You can secure it even more by adding some hot glue, but it’s pretty tight there. I don’t think it’s going anywhere. And then the final piece will be the pearl pin to be used to attach it to the lapel and this is a beautiful boutonniere with the fragrance of the rosemary. It’s wonderful! The last piece were going to do is a corsage. Now this is gonna be a little bit bigger, so we’re gonna want a little bit bigger stem with leaves and some sprigs there, and we’re gonna use a couple of succulents. This crassula ovata jade plant and this a little bit larger rosette. Now the this rosette here on the very tips has some pink and reddish color. That’s gonna really combine great with the flowers from the red yucca now. If you need to take off some leaves down at the bottom that may be dead or just need to come off and you can do that. I’m going to show you a little bit different way to anchor your succulents to wire now. This Priscilla has a little bit of a thin stem. So what I’ve done is I’ve done a u-shape of the wire and just laid it on the stem onto the wire there, and then I will attach it with the floral tape, and this is a little bit easier way to anchor succulents that have smaller stems to the wire and you would do the same floral tape procedure, just tugging on the floral tape and twirling it all the way down, and that will secure this succulent that has a little bit smaller stem, but the echeverria you can see there that. I’ve already done the same procedure and anchoring it. So now we start the layering process with the leafy stem there and just work with your sprigs there, and sometimes they lay differently. If you turn them around, you want to remember that this is going to go up on a lady’s shoulder, so you want it to lay as flat as possible and start adding the succulent’s the Jade plant here. I’ve decided to go ahead and tape these pieces together to give me a little bit easier play with them, so I taped these three pieces together, and then I started layering, and I realized that this red Yucca Flowers had some buds that were not letting my jade plant lay flat, so I decided to take those off and that way The Jade plant can lay flat a little bit easier adding the last little sprig there before adding the Echeverria now on these at you’ve areas there on wires, so you can turn them a little bit. If you find that, the succulent is sitting too straight and you want it to look a little bit more forward, you can just pull it forward a little bit, and then that will turn the wire and it will be looking out instead of straight up, so you check it just before you do the floral tape, combining everything together and then just wrap it around the base all the way down and here. I’m going to add a bow very simple ribbon. Bow, you’re going to do a loop, leaving about three or four inches of extra ribbon there. Scrunch it between your fingers between your thumb and finger, do a loop and scrunch it between your fingers and do the same on the other side and you can do as many loops as you’d like to make it as full as you like. I did two on each side and then cut, leaving about three or four inches of ribbon and the way that I’m hold this together. Is I’m going to put a wire through the loop. Bend it and then twist it together, holding it together and I will attach this to the corsage with some floral tape, and that will be my final floral tape around the stem securing everything together. And there you have it friends, a beautiful corsage for the mother of the bride mother of the groom and you can combine and work all these pieces together to make it a set. You can create these pieces a couple of days before your event, and simply you miss them with some water, Put them in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator, and they’ll keep perfectly until your event super easy and very cost-effective to make these for your special event. Thanks so much friends for joining me today. I appreciate your support so much, and if you haven’t subscribed already, please do so, and if you enjoyed the video, please do give it a thumbs up. Have a blessed day friends. you !