Fabric-Punched Bouquet

Bring the beauty of flowers that never fade into your home with this surprisingly simple craft. Our trio of vintage-style keepsake bouquets includes pink violets, blue hydrangeas, and purple-and-gold pansies.

MATERIALS

• Lightweight fabrics (such as voile or Indian cotton)
• Tray
• Medium paintbrush
• Liquid fabric stiffener, at crafts stores
• Petal and leaf craft punches
• Micro hole punch
• Floral pips (small wires with colored tips used to make silk flowers), at crafts stores
• Contact cement
• Floral wire
• Wire cutters
• Green floral tape
• Floral tape
• Vase (optional)

STEPS

STEP 1

Begin by punching fabric flowers: Lay a piece of fabric in a shallow tray. With a medium paintbrush, apply enough fabric stiffener to saturate, but not soak, the fabric. Let it dry, about 1 hour. Repeat with any remaining fabric.

STEP 2

Using craft punches, punch out petals and leaves as close together on the fabric as possible.

STEP 3

Using a micro hole punch, make a hole in the center of each bloom. Slip a pip through each hole, and secure it with a dab of contact cement.

STEP 4

To make a stem, cut a length of floral wire, and wrap it around each pip with green floral tape.

STEP 5

For leaves, glue floral wire to each one to create veins and stems. Wrap stems with floral tape.

STEP 6

Gather blooms and leaves into a bouquet, and either tuck them in a vase or wrap the stems in more floral tape to join them.