Color your dried flowers. Using
either
watered-down India ink or a solution of dirty paint water, dip the
flowers in
the solution and let dry. Divide them into small stems, and set them
aside to
dry. (Below, the flowers on the left were dipped in watery paint
solution, the
flowers on the right in full-strength ink. Choose which look you are
going for.)
Step 5:
Start the layering process: glue feathers individually to form a nice circle all around the lace. Try and place these so the shorter ones are at the top, medium sized are at the sides, and the longest feathers are pointing towards the bottom. This will create the graceful downsweep of the bouquet.
Step 6:
Put the bouquet to one side, and start working on your painted flowers and ivy. The ivy is pre-painted, but not aged (in case you don't want that look). To age it, take a stain pen or brown paint (somewhat diluted, but not much) and place dabs on the edge of the ivy flowers. Do this as much or as little as is your preference. Set aside to dry.
Take the green thread (provided),
place some
glue on your finger, and pull the thread through the glue, working it
into the
thread. This will cause the thread to thicken enough to be a "stem."
Once dry, cut the thread into eight pieces, varying their length
slightly. You
don't want all the flowers to be the exact same length.
Separate the dried ivy leaves from
each
other, and using the ball stylus and mouse pad (or any similar type
tools, such
as a dried up ball point pen and your cupped hand), curve the ivy
leaves for a
realistic look. Use superglue (or regular tacky, but small amounts!) to
adhere
the leaves to the thickened thread.
Continue the layer effect by
gluing your
stems of ivy onto the center of the bouquet. Make sure you have a
graceful
drape, and keep the ivy facing forward.
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