Altar Heart Floral Arrangement

Creating your own floral arrangement is a great way to save money and still have a beautiful wedding. It's so easy with STYROFOAM™ Brand Foam and silk flowers. Your guests will never know you did it yourself!

Materials:

• STYROFOAM Brand Foam:
  • Arranger, green, 6" x 3" x 2" OR Block, green, 8" x 4" x 2"
  • Hearts, solid: 3" x 1/2", four; 6" x 1", one
• Pewter/brushed brass pedestal bowl, 9"
• Crystal micro-bead assortment, three bags
• Double-sided tape, 1/2" wide
• Faceted crystal spray, four
• White or ivory silk floral stems: orchid, one; freesia, two; gladiolas, lilacs, and rosebuds with leaves, three each; mini roses, four; large roses with leaves, seven
• Green reindeer moss, one bag each: light; medium; dark
• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Low-temp glue gun and glue sticks
• Thick, white craft glue
• T-pins
• Floral shears
• Serrated knife
• Candle stub or paraffin
• Tape measure or ruler
• Wooden skewer

Steps:

1. Insert wooden skewer into back of one 3" foam heart. Holding skewer, carefully and completely cover front and sides of heart with double-sided tape. Avoid touching adhesive with fingers. Remove protective liners.
    
2. Carefully open micro-bead bags and pour onto paper plate; extra beads may be returned to bag upon project completion. Press exposed areas of heart into beads. Use fingers to press beads to any open areas; fill in open areas with smaller beads from package. Gently tap heart against plate to dislodge loose beads. Remove skewer.
    
3. Cut mini rose from stem and glue to heart center. Glue small pieces of medium and dark green moss to back edges of heart.
    
4. Repeat Steps 1-3 three times.
    
5. Apply double-sided tape to sides of large foam heart; apply beads in same way as smaller hearts. Glue light and medium green moss to front of heart. Glue medium and dark green moss to back of heart.
    
6. Wax serrated knife with candle stub or paraffin. Cut 1" x 1" x 1/2" scrap from foam block; glue to center of large heart. Center and glue one smaller heart to large heart. Glue small pieces of light green moss to exposed gap between hearts. Set aside.
   
   Floral Arrangement
   
   Note: As you work, carefully measure and trim floral stems to achieve balanced design approximately 36" wide and 20" tall. Position florals as if growing from center of arrangement. Stand back to periodically check placement; adjust as desired.
    
7. Use waxed knife to round corners of foam block to fit container; glue to secure. Fill gaps around block with scrap foam. Cover foam surface with dark green moss.
    
8. Use floral shears to trim floral stems, then insert into foam block as follows (think of a clock): gladiolas, one at 9 o'clock, 11, and 3; lilacs, one at 10 o'clock, 1, and 2; crystal sprays, one at 8 o'clock, 11, 12, and 4; orchid, in center between two left crystal stems; freesia, one to right of orchid and one to bottom left front of design.
    
9. Select four 8" flexible stems from those cut in Step 8. Glue one end of each stem to center back of foam hearts. Using photo as guide, insert hearts into arrangement.
    
10. Trim rose and rosebud stems as needed. Using photo as guide, insert large roses and three rosebuds around hearts at center of arrangement.
     
11. If desired, remove and spot glue stems to secure.

®™ Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow") or an affiliated company of Dow. For more project ideas, please see styrofoamstyle.com.