Winter Holiday Tablescape Decor

by Vicki

Volunteering at a thrift store provides plenty of opportunity to purchase “raw” materials, that is things to remake into new things! It really sparks my creativity. Steph asked me to come up with an arrangement for her dinning room table. It had to be rustic in keeping with her Christmas/winter decorating theme with a touch of purple.

​When my son got married in 2009, I taught myself simple flower arranging via tutorials on the web. I used that bit of knowledge plus thrifted, purchased, & found* items to create Steph’s arrangement.

Materials:

• 4 white poinsettia bushes (two were thrifted, two were purchased)
• Floral picks (purchased)
• Purple ornaments (thrifted)
• Foam (found)
• Fence/Pallet boards (found)
• Cardboard (found)
• Table runner (thrifted)

Tools:

• Hot glue gun/glue
• Wire cutters
• Circular saw
• Wood Glue
• Clamps, speed square, wood block

Make the box:

• Decide how large a box you want. Cut two boards for the length & two short boards for the sides. Make the cuts straight or the box will NOT come together. (I know cause I had to do this step twice!)
• Using a carpenters’ speed square or a child’s wood block, square up each of the four corners, glue & clamp into place. This will be easier if you have an assistant to help hold things. It’s really hard to do by yourself although not impossible. Let dry.

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I was originally going to leave this without a bottom to act as a slipcover for the arrangement but decided adding a bottom would make it more convenient to move the arrangement. I simply cut a piece of cardboard to fit & glued it into place. 

Arranging the flowers (watch video above for this):

• Cut the foam to fit inside the box. I used packing styrofoam rather than floral foam which would have been way easier but our theme is “use what we have” so the packing styrofoam was it.
• Separate the flowers & trim the stems. Mine were about 6” in length after trimming
• Starting in the center of the foam, place one flower, add additional flower spacing so they just touch each other. Use the same number on each side of the center flower. The flowers at each end are set at a slight angle pointed out.
• On both sides of the first row, place flowers in-between the first set
• With remaining flowers, fill in as necessary
• For the ornaments, I tried wiring them to the floral picks, but that proved fruitless & frustrating. I ended up breaking the floral picks in half then hot glueing the ornament to the pick. Hot clue leaves in the same manner & add to arrangement 
• Artfully arrange the ornaments into the arrangement, again balancing the arrangement with even numbers on each side of center
• If you haven’t done so already, place the completed arrangement into the box

*Thrifted: purchased at a thrift store or yard sale
Found: an item already purchased for another project or acquired for free already in crafting stash
Purchased: something bought new ​

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