Erin FoxWe know spring has arrived when snowdrops start shooting up out of the soil. The flower is mostly found on roadsides and in damp woods. Sometimes they are found in gardens but they are tricky to grow. Delicate and fragile looking, snowdrops have such a fleeting life that we don’t get to enjoy them for very long. To speed up the arrival of spring, craft your own everlasting snowdrops; you can enjoy them before the flower blooms and long after it finishes for the year.
For the everlasting snowdrops you will need: floral wire, floral tape, white crepe paper, green crepe paper, scissors and glue.
Cut out a small square of white tissue paper measuring about one inch and wrap this around the end of a long piece of floral wire. Secure with a little glue. Cut out a three-petal flower from the white crepe paper. Make sure the petals are long and pointy.
Tissue paper
Pierce this onto the floral wire from the bottom pulling it up over the top so it touches the first piece of tissue paper. Secure with glue and then wrap some floral tape tightly around the stem. Bend the stem so the flower faces downward. Gently shape petals so they curve down over the centre of the snowdrop.
Cut strips of green tissue paper and twist to form leaves. Attach to the stem with floral tape. Use different lengths of floral wire for snowdrops in a variety of sizes.
Display
Think of different ways to display your readymade snowdrops. Place them in an empty glass bottle or jar so they look like they’ve been freshly picked. Carve and decorate a cake to look like a flowerpot, place the snowdrops in the top to look like you’ve freshly potted them. Gather a bundle and tie together with some ribbon and wear as a brooch.
Try making other spring flowers – such as primroses, crocuses and daffodils – with crepe paper. Cut up a piece of floral wire and tape the pieces to another stem to create little branches.
Fashion some lily of the valley flower heads out of white tissue paper and attach these to the pieces of wire sticking out of the stem.