Unconventional Vases

It was such a beautiful day today I was able to play with some flowers outside. I picked up one inexpensive bouquet of alstroemeria, but if any white daisies would have been available I would have gladly snatched them up!

I'm not saying these designs are genius, but I wanted to give you some inspiration in thinking OUTSIDE the box. Vases are cool & all, but what if I wanted to plunk some flowers in my daughters pink polka-dotted rain goulashes? Or a vintage tin? Or any other odd shaped vessel that wasn't meant to hold water, such as this solo silo--its barn friend long gone.

This is what all these designs have in common: if I filled the containers with water, there would be leaks & drips & a big wet mess.

The solution is simple. Fill an appropriately sized cup with water & place it INSIDE your chosen container. A vase is born!

I even had this cute pink Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic tissue container in my cupboard. I thought it would make a nice long, low vase.

I turned it upside down. Then, I filled two shallow jars with some water & placed them inside the tissue box.

Fill with flowers & voila! No one would ever guess the container's original purpose!

But this next idea is my absolute FAVORITE!
The supplies you'll need are: wet floral foam (intended for fresh flowers), a knife, a bowl of water, your flowers (of course!) & a sweet little vintage handbag.

First you'll want to cut a piece of foam that will fit inside your purse.

Wet floral foam needs to sit in water & soak up all that liquid so your flowers will have something to drink. Follow the directions on your package for soaking the foam, but it's basically done when it has sunk to the bottom of the bowl.

Place this heavy, wet piece of foam inside a sturdy baggie.

And then carefully place the baggie inside your purse. If you're nervous about damaging your handbag you can double up on the plastic baggies. Of course, don't use your best & most cherished clutches!

Start poking your floral stems into the foam. Just a few stems of the alstroemeria did the trick for me. Random wildflowers, haphazardly arranged in vintage handbags, look the sweetest too!

I used to make & sell these handbag (& vintage shoe) arrangements using artificial flowers, so just use the same concept here, except use dry floral foam--used for dry & artificial flowers.

Oh yeah, I used to be a floral designer by the way. haha! It was pretty frustrating though because no one wanted to hire a newbie fresh out of floral design school without any experience. So, how was I supposed to GET any experience if no one was willing to GIVE me any experience? Though the fresh floral snobs wouldn't have me, I ended up getting a job working with artificial flowers at The Great Indoors in Scottsdale Arizona & it was one of my favorite jobs!