and now for something completely different

a wedding post! you know how sometimes you meet a couple who have been together for years and years and years and every time you see them, it's like looking at a couple who just started dating and are still in the puppy love stage and they are SO friggin' perfect for each other that it makes you want to barf? 

well, that's tommy and amanda.

tommy and amanda are two amazing friends of mine who are getting married on saturday. technically i think they got married last year at the court house (something about loving each other so much they couldn't wait more than a month or so after getting engaged or something disgusting like that) but now they are having a big ol' ceremony and reception! i have the honor of making all of their floral arrangements for the wedding and i am so excited about the boutonnieres, i thought i would share them and also make a tutorial if someone else wants to make some like this too! 

first off-- check this shit out:

two things you need to know about tommy and amanda-
they love comics, and they are dance MACHINES!

so flowers made out of comic book pages really seemed fitting. tommy does some super cool artwork using comic books, plus it seems like he has quite the collection. so, here is how it's done ladies and gents:

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step 1: gather up supplies

things you will need for sure:

-comics (durrrr)

-wire cutters

-about a 14 gauge wire, paper wrapped is better

-floral tape

-your trusty hot glue gun

-scissors

and if you want to make this same type i did, you will also need some greenery (i'm using rose leaves) and green hypericum (there is already so much color, green won't get so lost)

step 2: pick out your flower colors and get yourself some comic books

tommy and amanda's wedding colors are 'peacocky,' so we needed a lot of greens and blues. flip through the books and try to grab some where the main colors are something you need. thor and the x- men were blue and green enough for me. it is important that you watch what you're using. you don't want to use a page that is comic on one side and an ad on the other... which happens all the god damn time. 

not awesome

awesome

step 3: cut out 9 billion hearts

yep, just little ol' heart shapes! make them about 1-2" big, and make sure the two round tops are the correct colors on at least one side. they don't need to be perfect, the same shape, or the same size. if you didn't care about colors, it would take about 2 pages worth of  cut out hearts to make one flower. since i really, really care, i used about a dozen books to make 10 flowers.

you will go from this...

...to this!

step 4: check yo'self before you wreck yo'self

once you have them cut out, make sure the hearts are ok on both sides. i ended up not using a whole bunch i cut out because they were great on one side, but the other side ended up being too much of the wrong colors. while both sides won't always show, its easier if you just have all usable pieces.

step 5: roll the edges

this is the most annoying step. grab your paper rapped wire (or a kabob stick- that's what i used!) and gently roll the top of the heart, starting at the center so it doesn't tear anywhere. the side with the best coloring on it will be the side that the stick doesn't touch

next, fold it in half around the stick hot-dog style with the top curves facing away from each other

it should look like this....

but here is a video if i didn't describe it well... obviously the 'good side' i mentioned above is the big critter mug in the video

do all of the hearts before you start gluing. it's annoying, but easier when you start gluing

step 6: glue sticks are gooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!

time for the glue gun! starting with the smaller hearts, you are going to glue them from the flower center, out. the first you use shouldn't be your favorites, because they are just gonna be little tubes.

it's easier if you just watch this video instead of me trying to describe this, but basically you just go in a circle gluing this shit down!

(side note in both videos in this tutorial--

don't criticize my lack of painted nails. not only does nail polish chip off after like, 1 hour because my nails don't know what shape they are supposed to grow in, but i also sewed off half of a fingernail last week and it looks gross, but if ALL my nails look chipped, maybe no one will notice!

also, i'm not a creep. yes, barry white is playing in the background while i make my internet videos, but the sam cooke station on last fm is the bomb. i can't help it.)

keep on adding until you are happy.... and after all that, hopefully you are somewhere around here:

step 7: tape time

hopefully that helped and now you are ready for the floral tape to bust out. if you haven't used floral tape before, here is a tip: pull it a little tight as you wrap and it will get sticky enough to stay. if you pull it TOO tight, your fingers will get sticky and you will most likely rip that shit up and get mad. so don't use your hulk strength for this step. start just under the flower, roll up, and then wrap to the bottom. 

make sure the 'stem' is the correct length before you wrap it all up.

step 8: trim your trimmins

you only need like, a leave and a tiny bit of hypericum. i went from this

to this and that already wasn't a full stem AND i cut it down a little more after i was done!

step 9: more tape, really.

get your trimmin's close to the base of the flower, and carefully wrap floral tape around it. the stems from these should be shorter than the length of the paper flower stem. once these are wrapped-- BAM! you are done! curl the bottom, pin that shit on and go get married!