Carnations are one of my favorite flowers.  You can dress them up, or dress them down.  They’re great mixed with other blooms, or make a fun, ruffly statement on their own.  In the latest issue of Martha Stewart Weddings there was a whole article on carnations as the current “it” flower.  There are so many fun projects to DIY with flowers for a wedding, and in my opinion one of the easiest is creating shapes or letters out of carnations or mums.  For one thing carnations and mums are hardy, and can be out of water for a fairly good amount of time before they start to show signs of wilting or fading, and they come in tons of fun colors so you can certainly find a shade to coordinate with your event.  Here’s what you’ll need for this project:

• Cutting implements: X-Acto knife, scissors, and shears (or kitchen scissors will work as well).
• Glue gun.
• Poster board.  Depending on the size of your shape or letters you will need to make sure you get enough.  For the heart I just used a standard 18×24 I bought at a craft store.
• Carnations.  This project took 18-20 carnations and the heart was 8″x9″.
• Ribbon.

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Finished.  If you are creating this project for your wedding or event I’d suggest doing it the day or night before.  The carnations should hold up just fine, and you’ll save yourself the hassle of doing it the day of.  To add a little bit of extra fun to my heart I taped one of my handmade arrows (find the DIY here) to the back.  Too cute.  A big thank you to my awesome neighbor Kelly of the blog 26East, for lending me her beautiful Bertoia chair to hang my heart on.