Rainbow Leaves Centerpiece

Submitted to Crop Chocolate - Rainbow Challenge and Shopping our Stash Challenge 64  - try a new technique.  My new technique was, well, pretty much everything.  I have never used floral wire, styrofoam or made a centerpiece :)

Many of you know that I manage The Arts at UC Davis.  We are coming up upon our annual Arts Fall Luncheon, and I found a version of this online and thought it'd be cute to make them as table centerpieces for the luncheon.  I'm calling it rainbow because I cut leaves in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.

Products used:

Red:  Dots and Stripes; Orange:  Trinity Surf and Swim; Yellow:  Echo Park Country Drive, Green:  EP For the Record; Blue: Doodlebug Blue Jeans; Violet:  BG Kioshi.  Other products used:  Floral wire, mod podge, washi tape, twine, styrofoam and spray mount.  Oh ya, and an empty green bean can.

It was so easy to make.....

First, I cut a bunch of leaves using Nestabilities dies.  Remember to cut two of each leave you want to use because you have to glue them to floral wire like this...

Then, I went and pulled some twigs off  a bush in the yard. A hint, I didn't want to pull "live" twigs off, so I used the deader portions, but the twigs were pretty brittle. I think I'll use something a little greener for the next one I do.  Wrap the floral wire around the twigs.

 I embellished my can with some washi tape (in rainbow colors of course) on some scrap paper and spray mounted it to the can. I also covered the whole thing with mod podge for good measure.  My dear husband cut some styrofoam to fit inside the can.  I think I need to add some moss or something to the top.  Hmmm.... I stuck the twigs into the styrofoam and arranged the leaves artfully (ok, I think it's artful - be nice!!) I also embellished the can with some bling, die cuts, twine (in rainbow colors!) and a flower I got from UmWow Studios.



And voila, a fun and funky centerpiece for the Arts luncheon!

 Hope you like my rainbow leaves centerpiece.

Craftily yours,

Karen (karey2005)