If you’re thinking of switching from real flowers to artificial ones because they’re easier to maintain consider foil flowers, too. Even though foil flowers don’t look real they do look beautiful. Foil has a way of making many crafts look so elegant. Working with foil is a little tricky since it tears so easily but it’s easy to work with at the same time because it’s so versatile.
A dull pencil is the perfect tool for making foil flowers. Draw virtually any shape and the indentations the pencil makes gives you a cutting guide. Try to keep the foil smooth during the process of making flowers unless you intentionally want wrinkles or creases in your design.
Cut seven or eight daisy shapes making each one slightly smaller than the previous. Use green floral wire and glue the largest shape on first, pushing the wire through the center of the foil. Slide the next largest one and so on until all the pieces are on. The depth of the flower is dependent upon how many shapes you put on the stem.
To make leaves fold a strip of foil in half then in half again, lengthways. The foil should be approximately two inches wide after folding. Larger leaves can be made by using a wider strip of folded foil. Cut the leaf shape as though two leaves were joined at their bases. Round the ends or cut them to a point. Wrap the center of the foil piece around the floral wire and twist once to hold in place.
Cut a large circle of foil and make an “O” with finger and thumb. Push the foil into the “O”, then fill with foam or paper. Now close the foil over the stuffing letting the paper or foam show slightly. This will give the appearance of a flower that is beginning to open.
Make different shaped flowers by cutting different shapes from the foil. Try round shapes, shapes with just a few points around the edges and other varieties. Use pinking shears to make lacy or zig-zag edges on the foil shapes.
Use green floral tape to wrap several wires together, pointing the wires in different directions. Now roll foil into football shapes and slide them on to the wires for foil pussy willows.
Take three layers of foil, cut into very thin strips and wrap around a pencil. Slide the pencil out and you have curly sprigs to place in the vase alongside of the flowers.
The entire vase full of flowers doesn’t have to be foil. You can combine silk arrangements with some of the foil flowers intermixed. Or make balls of foil to place on floral wire and place them here and there amongst the silk flowers for a metallic touch to the arrangement.
Colored foils give the crafter even more choices for flower making. Alternate different colors on the stem for a really unique metallic look. Red foil for roses, green foil for leaves, or imagine your own patterns and designs.
