Finishing the Calla Lily

For some crazy reason the video I made on coloring and finishing the flower wont load onto blogger. So I made a picture tutorial instead.

Calla Lilies come in many different colors so you can have fun choosing what colors you want. The easiest and most elegant are the white Calla Lilies because you don't have to color them, although I do add some white petal dust to give them a little more realistic look. If you look at a real flower's coloring you can see that it isn't just one color on the petals. There is a variation to the colors. So the more colors you add to the petal the more realistic it looks. I like to have at least three colors on my petals.

Start with your base color. When you color petals dip your brush in the powder and tap it in the lid so you don't have too much on your brush. Then go around the edges of the petal first because the edges or the petal are the darkest and you don't want dark blothches of color in the center on your flower. Once you go around the edges then blend the color into the center of the petal until the entire petal is covered. Repeat on the other side.

Then I use a brighter/lighter color in the center and a darker color on the outer edge. The colors I used were Georgia Peach (luster dust) for the base color, Daffodil (petal dust) center, and Tahitian Sun (petal dust) for the outside edge.

To finish the flower put sugar glue in the center of the petal about half way up to glue the center and a little sugar glue on the bottom corners by my thumb. You put the corners together like closing a book and then fold to one side.

Then wrap the two wires together with flower tape. You can either start wrapping at the top being careful not to hit the petal or you can wrap slightly lower and slide it up after wrapping it around a few times. To use flower tape stretch the tape to make it sticky and wind it down the floral wire.

I also add a little Moss Green petal dust to the base of the flower since they are slightly green at the bottom where they meet with the stem. Moss Green matches well with the floral tape.

Now that your flower is finished you can make your leaves using the same soft method to wire the leaf and then use floral tape to attach the leaves to the flower. So if your floral taping on the flower isn't the best don't worry you will be taping over it to add leaves or more flowers. Or you may not really see it if you are sticking them in the cake (you just want the green there incase a little is showing so it looks realistic).