Christmas Centerpiece
Florists keep a large supply of millimeter balls (kind of like miniature christmas ornaments) on hand in purple, pink, green, silver, gold and red for quick additions to Christmas arrangements.
I bought a simple tube of Christmas ornaments at the dollar store. It's a great buy and they are very simple to turn into another decorative "upgrade" to your arrangement.
I'm going to stay with red and green balls for this design. I simply slide a stiff wire (18 gauge to 21 gauge) and then bend it down to create a double wire stem.
I use floral tape, starting up high right under the neck of the ornament before taping all the way down the wire.
I then snip the wire stem to the length I need and insert into my flower arrangement.
I like clustering my ornamentals - it draws the eye to them in the arrangement. Notice I have the ball inserted deep enough to conceal the taped neck of the ornament.
I tape another ball in contrasting green and tuck it down a little lower in the design, clustered close to the first ornament.
Between the candy cane picks, the two glass ball ornaments and the fancy "bow" from the dollar store, I'm able to add some simple upgrades that can easily add $10 or more to a finished price of a Christmas design.
See how FTD "upgrades" it's flower designs - there is very little difference between the two sleigh designs, maybe a few extra stems of flowers - but very little difference in designer time. But the extra punch of going from $50 ("Good") to $80 ("Exquisite") is the advantage of a lot of marketing.
After all - whose mother isn't worth "exquisite"? Wire services promote "collectible" vases and containers and charge high prices for them. These collectibles often end up later as yard sale or Goodwill items that sell for a fraction of their original prices.
Careful shopping after Christmas sales, thrift shops and dollar stores can snag you some lovely and imaginative containers so you can put your money into the flowers instead of the containers!
