I think its the Irish in me that has made this project so much fun. My mother is half Irish … well Northern Irish – so I should be adding some orange to these arrangements – which I’m obviously not. Through my father I’m Scot-Irish – which were really Scots that left Scotland to settled in Ireland for a few generation before getting kicked out of Ireland and not allowed back in Scotland.
Oh, and there’s fact that I can make paper shamrock do things that a natural shamrock with their flimsy stems never could.
Selecting the Paper for the Shamrocks
I admit, I had to go back to the store for more paper. A favorite store nearby, FLAX, is changing locations, so they have their massive paper on sale for ridiculous prices. Some of their $4 sheets are selling for $1. So I went back for more green for St Patrick’s Day, and because I’m going to need greens for all future flowers and leaves.
But when it came time to figuring out which green paper to use, they ended up looking so cool, all of them. So that’s what I decided to do, use them all.
Making the Shamrocks
The trick with the shamrocks wasn’t the shape but how to make it secure enough to stay on a stem. Once I had the shape, I created a hole in the middle. I inserted a cone into the hole, and the extra paper to fill up the cone. The stem could then be attached to the cone underneath. One of the papers was a little too thin. The glue got all over the place an the form wont hold its shape. I’ll probably not use them much.
Making the Daffodils
Whoo hoo I can make paper daffodils!!! I tried one of the DIY patterns but I couldn’t get it to look right. But as I am an huge lover of daffodils and other narcissus so I just scraped it and started from scratch. The white petals with the white trumpet are glorious in nature, but I couldn’t really get it to look great in paper. In fact, with this arrangement, the off-whites with the yellow trumpets are what ended up looking the most natural.
Putting it all Together
Fantastico is fantastico!!! Fantastico is a supply store down in the SF Flower Market. It has supplies for the floral market, but also is like a party supply store on crack, and craft store. I had hoped to be able to get larger Leprechaun pots than these tiny 3″ pots, but thy were out. But the tiny pots forced me to think small. I tried placing the foam balls atop the cauldrons, but it was hard to hide all the foam without making the shape too wide and overbalancing the tiny pot. Pushng the foam into the pot, which needed a bit of force, made it work alot better.
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Final Design – tbd
I still haven’t figured out which size of daffodils to use. I’ve made three different combinations and I still can’t decide. So I created an online contest to have others help me make up my mind.
- Small paper daffodils
- Large paper daffodils
- Mixed sized paper daffodils
Click here to vote for your favorite design.
I will follow up with the winner next week.
Ammar Paper Flowers 