DIY: paper hydrangea pomander balls
These little flower balls are awesome, easy to make, inexpensive decor for any wedding.
One of the reasons my fiancé and I picked our venue is because it’s so gorgeously opulent in its natural state. So our ceremony decor is going to be very simple…just two large floral arrangements with us standing between them. To make the room a little bit more festive, I decided to make some of these pomander balls to hang on the chairs and doorknobs.
It’s really simple. I was inspired by this baby-shower pomander tutorial by Paula of Frog Prince Paperie, which is posted here. Her instructions are great and have way better photos than my post, so you should check them out.
What you need:
- flower paper punch - hydrangeas or daisies are particularly lovely.
- cardstock
- 150 pearl-head corsage pins (eBay had the best price by a lot)
- 1” wide ribbon
- Krylon H2o Latex Spray Paint (optional, but please use this brand)
- styrofoam balls - for a wedding, you want at least 5” diameter. (see the photos of mine on the chair; they’re still a little small, and they were 5”)
The reason for that very specific spray paint is this: your flowers will shift around a bit after you make them, and some of the white styrofoam underneath will show. If you’re aiming to make very dark pomanders, you can either really pack in the paper flowers, or you can start by spray-painting the balls. But!! Regular spray paint dissolves styrofoam, so please use Krylon H2o or make sure that yours works with acrylic.
Another option is to wrap the entire styrofoam ball with ribbon. The tutorial below assumes that your styrofoam ball is already painted/wrapped if you want it to be.
How to:
- Punch approximately 200 flowers out of 2-3 pieces of cardstock. That will cover a 5” ball if you’re using one of the Martha Stewart punches.
- Cut a piece of the ribbon - the length should be approx 3x the diameter of the styrofoam ball you’re using, plus however much extra you need to create a loop for hanging.
- Wrap the ribbon around the ball once and pin it in place with some of the corsage pins. Create a loop, and tuck the end back under the ribbon on the styrofoam ball. Pin that into place as well.
- Take two of your punched flower shapes, and place them one on top of the other, offset, so that they look fuller. Push a single corsage pin through the center of the two pieces of paper. You now have a “flower.”
- Pin the flower to the styrofoam ball. I start by pinning them onto the area I’ve wrapped in ribbon, to better hold it in place.
- Continue pinning flowers to the ball until it’s entirely covered.
You’re done! If you used a ball larger than 5”, make sure that the 1” wide ribbon is capable of supporting its weight when it’s hanging.
Updated w/wedding photos:
