How To Make A Lei With Carnations

Terminal calendar week, I had historic my cousin'south loftier school graduation in Virginia. Little did she know, I had a surprise for her when the whole family and I were waiting for her exterior the stadium.

DIY: Money Lei for Graduates!

And then what did I want to give to my cousin for her graduation, besides money? I remembered that it is a tradition in Hawaii that graduates receive a lei. And I had besides heard that this same tradition was mimicked by some in California. So I decided that instead of giving her a bouquet of flowers (similar everyone else does), I would make her a lei out of fresh flowers. The question then became, what flowers should I use? I went on Google to meet what flowers worked best. I knew that orchids were out of the question (as they are expensive!). I establish a video on YouTube by Milani, and information technology was exactly what I needed. She was a lifesaver!

Below are the steps that I took to create a lei with carnation flowers.

Materials:

-sturdy string (crochet thread, classic10, natural)
– long needle with a big enough centre that allows the string to go through
– scissors
– tote filled with i/four″ of h2o for your flowers
– carnations of any color! (fifteen carnations = i lei, for a petite person)
– water bottle spray
– clear plastic bag
– magic fingers!

Gather your materials.  First, start past pinching off the stalk of the carnations (stem=peduncle).  You lot want to start make sure you proceed the "Sepal (small leaves under the flower)" function of the carnations.

Adjacent, place all the trimmed carnations into a tub, filled with less than one/4″ of h2o, to keep them fresh.

Then, lay out the string and see how long you lot want the lei to expect on yourself.  I had about 62 inches of string, which I folded in half to give the actual length of 31  inches.  The reason for this was because I wanted to brand sure the string is actress sturdy and hold the carnations in place.

And then,  tie a knot at the terminate about three times to brand sure that the carnations do non become anywhere.

Start stringing the carnations past piercing through the greenish stalk end of the carnation. Pull the needle through the heart of the carnation (this may be tough, then be conscientious not to prick yourself – as I did once, err..twice.).

Once yous've got the carnation through, slide the carnation carefully to the stop of the knot of the string, and commencement on the side by side ane.  Read carefully, when adding the 2nd carnation and sliding it down to the get-go ane, make sure the green stem of the second carnation is carefully hidden in the bloom of the first carnation.  You lot desire to minimize the look of the greenish stem.  Even if you allow some of the greenish stem, it just looks more aesthetically appealing if at that place is less of the green stem showing.  Encounter below:

Now that y'all know the process, continue to add additional carnations.  You can alternate the colors to give it a unique look, or add 3-4 more colors, to give information technology a wow gene.  I accept to admit, I was anxious most how information technology would turn out with 5 different colors.  The grocery store had a limited selection of carnations.  But after I sewed each of the carnations on the string, and tied the concluding i into a knot, I couldn't help but to be pleased and wowed with the combination of colors.

Once I completed the leis, I placed the two leis into a articulate plastic purse and sprayed water onto the carnations.  I tied the purse and placed them in the fridge carefully, shut to the door, and not in the back.  I was told past the florist, not to go along them in the back of the refrigerator, otherwise it would be also cold for the carnations and they would wilt faster because of the water ice.

About 4.5 hours afterward, I had to transfer them to the cooler for our 5 hour auto ride to the graduation.  I took the bags with me inside the stadium, then took the lei out of the bags.  I was able to wring the h2o off very carefully and lightly, and immune the lei to air dry on the seats.  I took them with me to meet up with my cousin.

The expect on her face up, priceless.  She loved them!  See the family movie below 🙂

Full cost of materials: > $30.00 for two leis
– 6 bouquets of half dozen = $24
– i curl of crochet strings $ane.49 (used a 50% off Michael'southward coupon)
– 1 pack of long needles $ane.99
– scissors (endemic)
– tub of any kind (owned)

Simply WAIT, there'south more!DIY ~ coin lei for graduates

Source: https://merrylavender.com/2013/06/17/pretty-carnation-leis-for-the-graduates/

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