Bridesmaids always look forward to the throwing of the wedding bouquet. After all, catching him means gaining a chance to follow in the footsteps of the happy newlywed. However, not every girl is ready to part with her treasured wedding accessory, seeing it as an important amulet for a young family. A wedding bouquet made of foamiran will come to the rescue, which can be used as a backup.
Hand-made flowers made by a master of his craft look no different from real ones. But the arrangement of them is much lighter and better suited for the role of a “flying” talisman. A stunt double made of artificial material will not hit anyone and will not be damaged by a strong throw.
What is foamiran
This soft, velvety to the touch, plastic material is often used in flower making. It is much easier to work with than, for example, silk or cold porcelain, and the result is no less realistic.
The largest manufacturer and concurrent inventor of foam (from the English foam - foamed) is the Iranian company Foam Iran Company.
Considering the technological features of the material, it is also called rubber paper or plastic suede (revelour). The sound “foamiran”, familiar to the ears of Russian needlewomen, is an abbreviation of the same Iranian company, whose products are recognized as a standard of quality and are valued all over the world.
Advantages of the material
Foam allows you to create flowers that are quite complex in structure, simulating natural color and texture. Not only experienced, but also novice craftsmen can handle it. This is probably why handmade wedding bouquets made from foamiran are so common. Even with some shortcomings and in a simplified form, such compositions look impressive and decorative.
The main advantages of foam:
- It is easy to cut with scissors, and the edges remain smooth and do not require additional processing.
- “Remembers” the shape well. To give the leaves and petals a natural volume, you do not need special tools - metal balls, which are not cheap.
- Excellently painted with acrylic or oil paints, as well as pastels of all types. The tint remains intact even without a protective varnish coating and is not washed off with water.
- Non-toxic, easy to care for and durable.
- It is affordable, but its products look sophisticated and elite.
The disadvantages include the flammability of the material. When processing with a lighter or on a candle flame, it should not be brought too close, otherwise the product will immediately catch fire and be damaged. Calculating the optimal distance to the fire can only be done experimentally, so there is always a risk of making a mistake. With strong pressure and a sharp jerk, the foam breaks, which is also a significant disadvantage.
Save flowers on a winter day
When choosing a bouquet for a winter wedding, you need to understand that you will not be able to completely protect it from frost. Therefore, it is worth giving preference to frost-resistant plants. There are flowers that tolerate low temperatures well: ranunculus, anemone, rose, waxflower, hypercum, succulents, cotton, brunia. An interesting fact is that flowers of light shades, in particular white roses, tolerate frost better than the same species, but of a brighter or darker color.
But this bouquet also requires a special, attentive attitude. A sharp transition from heat to cold and vice versa can be fatal for flowers. Try to smooth out these differences as much as possible - first take them into the hallway or bathroom. Where the temperature is lower than in the room. Then go to the front door and only then can you safely go outside. Using the same principle, you need to bring them into the restaurant hall.
Advantages of wedding arrangements made from foam
Fresh flowers are certainly beautiful. They carry positive energy, create a special mood, and add expressiveness to the image of the newlywed. However, there are situations when it is better to replace a composition made from natural plants with a man-made bouquet-understudy. And this is not only a ritual of passing the “marriage baton”. Although throwing away a heavy arrangement, often assembled on a porta bouquet, is not the best solution.
A bouquet of flowers from foamiran is appropriate:
- At a wedding photo shoot. Surprisingly, a handmade accessory will look more attractive than the real thing. Especially if the newlyweds decide to capture the second wedding day, it is unlikely that fresh flowers will be preserved in the best possible way by that time.
- In winter, if you plan to take a long walk in the fresh air - sleigh rides or other similar activities. It is better to leave the real bouquet in a warm room, and take a backup made of foam with you, so as not to be left without beautiful photographs.
- During the heat. Today it is fashionable to make bouquet arrangements on your own stems, that is, without a porta bouquet or other means of additional moisture. During a summer wedding, fresh flowers will have to be periodically placed in water so that they “come to their senses.” In the meantime, the bride will continue the ceremony with a beautiful foam arrangement. And it’s unlikely that anyone around you will notice the substitution, the man-made buds made from this material look so natural.
- As a souvenir. With a bouquet composition made of foam, you can decorate the interior of the newlyweds’ home and, looking at it, relive the happy moments of the wedding. But dried flowers are unlikely to evoke such emotions.
- The bride may also be allergic to pollen or floral scent. Then it is better for her to do without an arrangement of natural plants.
Rose made of corrugated paper with candies inside.
We cut out petals of different sizes from paper.
Place the candy in a rectangle of paper and wrap it to form a rosebud.
Glue or tie additional petals to the main bud
We bend the petals
edges so that the rose looks like a real one.
We attach a stick and leaves to the bud
This is such a gorgeous rose!
The next master class is also dedicated to roses. Here other candies are used and in order for them to stay on the stick, they need to be wrapped in transparent cellophane.
For the petals you will need rectangles.
They wrap the candies and tie them with thread at the bottom.
We attach leaves to the bud and for splendor you can use organza, tulle or floral paper, mesh and other decor.
For a bouquet you will need a lot of these roses; this is, of course, labor-intensive work, but the result is worth it. The bouquet is simply amazing!!!
Another bouquet can be made from Martian sweets; the principle of creation is the same for almost everyone. It’s even easier to attach such candies to a stick; wrap the tail around the stick with thread.
Petals are also cut out
Use your fingers to form the shape of the petals, then attach the petals to a stick with candies.
The finished flowers are inserted into the basket and additional decor is added. And the bouquet of sweets is ready)
Elegant bouquet of chrysanthemums
The easiest way is to make a mono-composition from plastic suede. This will allow you to spend less time on templates and create all flowers using the same technology. An interesting option is chrysanthemums, which are very lush and look naturalistic. In this case, even an inexperienced craftswoman can make a bride’s wedding bouquet from foamiran.
You will need:
- Iranian revelour in several shades and olive for leaves;
- dry pastel;
- floral wire, D1mm;
- porta bouquet holder;
- foam ball, D15 cm;
- satin and nylon ribbons;
- iron;
- heat gun.
There are several varieties of foamiran, but the Iranian one is considered universal, ideal for flower making.
Its thickness should be 0.8 - 1 mm. Then the finished products will retain their shape for a long time, recovering after deformation, wetting or heating. For delicate buds, such as apple, cherry or jasmine, you can use thinner foamiran sheets, 0.5 mm thick. Only the petals made from them straighten over time.
Chinese foam, which needlewomen love mainly for its low cost, is not always of the proper quality. However, its silk and marshmallow varieties are not inferior to Iranian samples. Typically, experienced craftsmen use both Iranian and Chinese revelure for flowers, thus skilfully saving money without sacrificing quality.
The process of making and assembling a bouquet arrangement:
From cardboard we will make 3 hexagon templates D4, 5 and 6 cm.
Let's number them 1, 2 and 3 accordingly.
For one chrysanthemum you will need:
- No. 1 – 4 pcs.;
- No. 2 and No. 3 – 3 pcs.
Flowers of a darker shade, in this case a lilac shade, remain in the minority so that the arrangement does not look too bright. There will be 9 of them. We make the rest – white and cream (or other pastel colors to your taste) in any quantity.
We cut the foamiran into strips, the width of which corresponds to the diameter of each of the three templates. We apply hexagons of cardboard and fold the material so that it can be easily picked up by scissors. We cut out the blanks from the revelour, and then make notches on them with scissors, highlighting the petals. We move from the top to the center of the figure.
Then use nail scissors with curved ends to round the edges of the petals. Parts of the blanks according to template No. 1 will need to be given a lush “terry” appearance. To do this, we make 2 additional cuts on the petals, taking into account the rounded shape, as shown in the photo.
Flowers are rarely completely monochromatic. Toward the center they change color to a lighter color or even become a different shade. This natural gradation can be conveyed using pastels. This is the best choice when working with foam.
It is recommended to use oil pastels, since they penetrate deeply into the material and are fixed in it without being washed off with water or fading.
But it will be difficult for novice craftswomen to shade the applied pigment - they will need solvents for oil paints, which have a specific smell. Therefore, at first it is worth resorting to dry pastels. It is applied in a thick layer to a damp cloth and then rubbed into the foam.
You can also paint the material directly, shading the pigment with your finger, if the pastel is soft enough and leaves a bright mark. The edges of the petals are also tinted, giving them volume.
In order for the flower preparations to acquire a natural shape, they must be heated. Usually an iron, an embossing hair dryer, a candle or a lighter are used. The first method is the most accessible and convenient. We set the iron regulator to the “Wool” position and, when the sole heats up, apply a foamiran blank to it. Seeing that the product decreases in size and begins to lag behind the metal surface, we remove it and quickly fold it into a “bud”.
We roll the future flower between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands, squeezing it with force and as if twisting it. We repeat the procedure many times, thinning the material and giving it a natural “folding”. We proceed in the same way with all blanks.
We cut out the leaves from 8x5 cm rectangles of olive color. We place the blank on the mold of any plant. We heat the foam on an iron, and then press it firmly against the veins of the mold. It must be made of hard material, otherwise the print will be smudged.
To emphasize the structure of the leaf, we tint it with dark green pastel. We stretch and bend the edges, giving them the waviness characteristic of real greenery.
Let's start assembling the chrysanthemum. We glue the first piece from template No. 1 onto a piece of floral wire, 7–8 cm long. We cut the next fragment with petals in half and glue the bud on both sides. Then we proceed according to the same scheme, gradually increasing the size of the workpieces. We gather the petals at the base a little. We make sure that the chrysanthemum is symmetrical and moderately open.
In total you need to make about 30 inflorescences.
We take out the floral sponge from the porta bouquet holder, remove the top mesh and attach a polystyrene foam hemisphere in its place. For fixation we use hot glue and nylon tape.
We cut off the wire “stems” of chrysanthemums. We distribute the buds evenly over the foam, interspersing them with leaves folded in half. The finished bouquet can be decorated with beads.
We mask the lower part of the arrangement with a double “skirt” made of corrugated paper and tulle. We decorate the leg of the portaquet with satin ribbon and lace.
Final photo:
Rose made of plastic suede
No matter how beautiful chrysanthemums are, an arrangement with the “queen of flowers” looks much more luxurious. A wedding bouquet of roses is the dream of every bride, and with the help of foamiran it’s easy to achieve it. For work, we will again take Iranian material, which, unlike Chinese, will not present unpleasant surprises: foamed sheets or unpredictable deformation when heated.
We will make the base for the flower arrangement from a foam ball on a porta-bouquet.
We cut out rose petals from 5x6 cm rectangles. We take equal parts of ivory and warmer cream shades. The first variety will form the core of the bud, the second is intended for its outer part. Thanks to this technique, closed glass-shaped roses do not have to be additionally tinted.
There is no need to thin the petals either. We heat them on an iron and apply them to a universal flower mold.
We assemble a rose on a foam base in the shape of an egg. It replaces the core of the bud. To fix the petals we use hot glue. To hide the foam from prying eyes, you will need three tightly twisted blanks.
Next, we wrap the core with new petals, placing them in a checkerboard pattern and gradually opening the bud. However, it should remain goblet-shaped and not fluffy. When heating, curl the edges of the last petals with your fingers, and form a pointed “nose” on the final petal.
We apply the sepals to the iron, stretch and twist. Glue it to the bottom of the flower, masking the edges of the petals and the foam “blank”. All that remains is to attach the roses to the porta bouquet, forming the arrangement.
Add decorative beads on the pins. We decorate the porta bouquet using pink foam leaves and natural aspidistra ribbons.
You can also make dainty peonies and add them to a pink bouquet. According to the next video MK it will not be difficult.
DIY Astra
In this master class we will make aster flowers from foamiran. The finished aster can be attached to an elastic band, hairpin or headband.
To make one flower you will need:
- Fom Iranian 1 mm thick;
- scissors;
- any instant glue or glue gun;
- iron.
Cut the sheet into three strips, measuring 2.5*20, 3.5*20, 4.5*30 centimeters.
Cut each strip into a fringe; the narrower the fringe, the more natural the finished flower will look. To make the fringe more natural, sharpen the ends.
Heat the iron on the “silk-wool” setting. Apply each strip to the iron for a few seconds until the fom begins to curl.
Apply glue to the narrowest strip and begin to twist it so that the fringe points inward.
The medium-width and widest strips must be glued with the fringe facing outward.
To make aster flowers from foamiran look natural, lightly twist the fringe with your fingers along the entire circumference. That's all, our flower is ready!
Step-by-step master class
The wedding bouquet begins with planning, where they decide what shades of flowers are needed, and also choose the shape of the accessory. After the main calculation work is completed, you need to buy all the materials that will be used to create the composition. Below is how to make a beautiful bouquet of artificial chrysanthemums that look lifelike.
- sheets of foamiran with lilac flowers (green, white);
- pastel crayons (dry or wax), emerald, pistachio and amethyst colors;
- wire used by florists, 0.5–1 mm;
- porta bouquet holder;
- satin ribbons, the width of which is 0.25 cm and 0.5 cm;
- half a foam sphere with a diameter of 15 cm;
- beads that look like pearls;
- metal wire with a cross section of 0.3 mm;
- strong fishing line;
- glue or gun with rods;
- iron or other heating device;
- sharpened nail scissors;
- A4 sheet of paper;
- printer or pencil.
Twigs No. 2
We cut the foamiran into rectangles measuring 1.5 by 6 cm. We cut out “fences” from them.
We roll up the “fences” with glue at the ends of the wires, then collect 3-4 pieces into a bush and tape them. We make several branches of different types.
WE MAKE BRANCHES
There will be two types of twigs in our bouquet. Branches No. 1 Cut out leaves from green foamiran. Leaves can be tinted with liquid spray paint.
Using heat, we shape the leaves, then glue them to the wires (it is more convenient to make branches on the wire if it is flexible).
WE MAKE BUDS
We collect 3-4 petals (the same as for a full rose. Instead of outer petals, we glue green sepals. The sepals should seem to encircle the bud. We tape the legs. Your buds are ready! These are the blanks for the bouquet you should get.
WE MAKE BERRIES
We take large beads that will serve as berries in the bouquet. Place them on skewers using glue. Cut out squares from green foamiran. We warm the middle of the square, then quickly tighten the bead. We secure the edges with rubber bands (you can use thread). We tape the legs so that the rubber bands are not visible later.
How to use
Some products, due to their awkward shape or too large size, can play a cruel joke on the bride during the throwing ceremony. Intricate arrangements with cascading flowers and greenery are very difficult to throw into the air. Owners of large bridal bouquets do not have a question about why they would need a duplicate bouquet for their wedding.
By replacing them with less traumatic analogues, you will protect your guests and insure against accidental damage to objects in the environment. In addition, many girls feel sorry to part with such a memorable thing. Therefore, the girl wonders whether a duplicate bouquet is needed for the wedding. Previously, it was rarely used, but now its popularity has increased dramatically.
Florists explain why you need a stand-in bouquet at a wedding. Sometimes a wedding lasts longer than one day. As a result of numerous changes in location, fragile plants may lose their attractiveness. Sometimes newlyweds hold a wedding in the winter season, when even the most persistent buds can fade due to sudden temperature changes. Read more about winter wedding bouquets.
An understudy for the bride's wedding bouquet ensures that the flowers look fresh throughout the entire celebration. In addition, it can be a wonderful addition to the second wedding outfit, since dressing up the bride is a new fashion trend. During the celebration, these flowers can be given “for safekeeping” to the witness or some little girl present among the guests.
When choosing a replacement flower arrangement, you can choose one of three options.
- An identical copy of the main bouquet. An ideal choice if the wedding takes place in winter or lasts two days. As a result, in all wedding photographs the hero of the occasion will be holding a chic composition of fresh plants in her hands.
- Bridal bouquet in miniature. It consists of the same colors as the main one, but is smaller in size and relatively light in weight, which makes it more convenient during the throwing ceremony.
- A composition of artificial flowers, as close as possible to the original in color and composition. It can be left as a keepsake, remembering with love and nostalgia one of the most significant events in life.
You can buy a duplicate bridal bouquet, but some people decide to make it themselves.
pros
Fresh flowers in the hands of the bride always look special, they complement her outfit and add tenderness to her appearance. But what to do when it’s winter outside? Not every bouquet can withstand the vagaries of our climate.
What if one of the newlyweds has allergies? It often happens that a wedding is decorated in an original color composition and it is difficult to find flowers with the right shade to match it. Or does the bride love certain flowers, but it’s not the season for them? But I really want to. This is where a bride's bouquet made from foamiran will help out.
Think big
The best ideas can be embodied in large dimensions, showing the level of the master and pleasing the eyes of all passersby.
Walk around the city (streets where there are clubs, restaurants and similar establishments) - you will probably find masterpieces two or three meters long, inviting eventual clients.
Production discipline also varies in scope. Take care of the size of the sheets attached to the base made of metal or thick cardboard (depending on the location of the sculpture).
In addition, it’s a good idea to take:
- fabric, cotton wool and threads - a combination of raw materials;
- polystyrene foam – base;
- frame - traditionally wire;
- heat gun (a smaller tool will not work);
- knife for cutting off unnecessary things.
Growth templates are often presented in a reduced form for placement on the pages of books or screens. Try to comply with the specified conditions - everyone will be satisfied. The scope of the decoration will allow you to occupy a corner where there are no ideas for arranging furniture and other things.
An attraction with such content will not let you get bored: there is a place to take pictures in a group or alone.
