Arranging silk flowers

I love having flowers in the house. For years I was opposed to the notion of what I haughtily called "fake flowers." At some point I had decided that in my home, only fresh flowers would do, thank you very much. Which meant that I usually had NO flowers in my home.

But I've learned something in the past year. "Fake flowers" have come a long way. Beautiful silk and dried flowers are readily available, inexpensive, and really very pretty. In addition to that, they're so easy to work with! You know how easy it is to make a pretty bow with wired ribbon? The wire holds the ribbon just in the right position, so it's super-easy to work with. Well, that's the way silk flowers are. Wherever you put them, that's where they stay!

Here's an arrangement I just made for the welcome table at church.

I started with a couple of these sprays of flowers:

These sprays give you a lot of bang for your buck. They're usually about $7 to $8 each but almost always on sale. I got these at 50% off, but I'm sure they'll be reduced even further soon! I wouldn't want to use these on their own, but they're bushy enough to give some good body and substance to the arrangement. Here are a couple of them in the vase:

The key is to get the plastic and wire "stems" down into the container so that nothing shows other than the pretty parts.

Next I add some tall elements. Sometimes I use curvy willow branches. These are silk branches of some kind:

Then I stick in some other tall elements, like these silk leaves and cat-tails. I usually have one tall element in the center and pairs of other elements, one on each side of the center, trying to keep things pretty symmetrical.

Then I add my "star" flowers: usually three of some special, usually fairly large, flower. In this arrangement I used sunflowers. After those are in place, I stick in little filler pieces (in this case, wheat and feathers) on the sides, adding and subtracting and generally "fluffing" until the arrangement is as full as I want it.

Since this arrangement is for the welcome table at church, it's pretty big--very tall and fairly full, so it requires quite a few flowers. I've purchased most of my silk flowers at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. If you buy them when they're on sale, you can put together even a big arrangement like this for $25 or less.

For my house, I wanted something a little smaller. I happened upon some pretty mums at Dollar Tree. I bought three of them and a block of floral foam for a total of $4. I just cut the foam to fit in my container, stuck the mums into the foam:

and popped the whole deal into a pretty container. Voila!

These will be pretty all season long . . . and then I can pack them away and use them again next fall!

What about you? Do you like to decorate with flowers? Ever try silk flowers? Do you know any good tips for using them? Please share!

--I'm linking up with Tabletop Tuesday at Marty's blog--hop over there for more inspiration!