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I originally created this scene a while back, but poorly-scaled crude plants (made by me) overwhelmed the scene and hid the treasures, while mis-matched planters and haphazardly-chosen accessories created a junk-store atmosphere. This time, armed with a dozen new planters and some fabulous tropical flowers from the only miniature store in the state of Hawaii--and better plant-building skills--I think I got it right. I tossed out most of the plants, keeping only the palm trees and three
clumps of grasses.
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Look at all that floor space! |
But the camera batteries are not cooperating today. |
Bundle several leaves around a clump of "sprouts" (loops of pale-green florists tape) and bind wire stems with more tape. Trunks are lengths of fat round power cable with the wire removed and a stiff wire jammed through the length (substitute whatever you've got on hand) and wrapped with brown florists tape. Frond wires are shoved in one end of the power cable and secured with
more tape.
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As purchased, the garlands are kind of clunky. Cut a variety of lengths (4"-8" works for me). Gently untwist the two strands, producing daintier strands that twist and twine. Twist the end of one wire around another to create branching vines. I splashed mine with some lighter green acrylic paint to give more color variety. |
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I used three shades of paper for the flowers: bright yellow, soft yellow, and salmon. I used at least two shades at random in every flower to give a sense of life and variety. The vine flowers are each made of three suns; two lightly shaped and the center one deeply shaped. The bush flowers are each made of three hearts and two suns. Each heart is creased down the center, then three are arrange points together on a green calyx (shaped sun) to make a cup shape. A deeply shaped sun is glued in the center. There's a wonderful flower tutorial on the Miniature Elegance website by Carla Benham. She also carries flower making supplies including pre-punched petals and leaves (so you won't be limited by punch availability!) |
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Pull the stiffening off full-sized silk fern leaves and arrange each lobe as a separate leaf. Coil one end of a snippet of green wire to make a fiddleleaf. Fringe the sides of small silk leaves to make them more delicate. Some silk flowers have large leaves on the stem, and smaller ones just below the calyx of the flower. These small leaves can be used as large leaves around the base of tall flowers. Look for tiny multi-flower heads like Queen Ann's Lace (especially in green) to use for ground cover. Bunches of grasses can be cut down and potted up. Short chunks of the garlands mentioned under "vines" above can be stuck upright in pots for small woody plants. |
Wingsnthings |
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