DIY Christmas Pomanders

                              

Pomanders, what a quick and fun way to add some lovely festive touches to your home. I have made these after being inspired by a wedding pin on Pinterest, (Yes! I found something that works in the real world from Pinterest, shocking I know ;P) and having almost everything I needed lying around the house and in my craft room. These are great to do with the 10-15 year old crowd, they get to use punches, cool paper, stick things with pins, and it's not messy or too long. Plus, no glue gunning.

This was the original pin picture I found, when I saw these I was all like, "Hey, I can do that Mr.!"
                             

Except I needed the 4 petal flower craft punch, which I bought at Michael's arts & crafts store, and I needed the push pins, which proved to be the most difficult thing to find. The dollar store had all these weird hues but I wanted all white or silver. Turns out Walmart was the only place in town that had them. I purchased them grudgingly, because I do not like supporting Walmart. Their business model & treatment of their employee's sucketh, big time; but I digress. I was stuck and only found out a month after the fact that I could order them from florist specialty suppliers, in many different hues. Aaaargh! Well, I know for next time.
These are the types of push pins & punch I used, I got the picture from another blog because at the time of writing this post, my punch has magically disappeared. I am sure it was the borrowers but have not got sufficient evidence to prove it. Ooh, I should watch Arietty again. Focus Kiki, focus, the picture of the punch from buzzcutsandponytails.com:
                             

If you want to order special pins, here are some florist site links that will make your life much easier. They are referred to as corsage pins:

                                         
http://www.floralsupplyonline.com/B/pins/pins.html
                                             
http://oasisfloralproducts.com/e2wShoppingCatalog.aspx?parentId=3100002926

                                         
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/800X-Pearl-Round-Head-Dressmaking-Sewing-Pins-Decorating-Wedding-Florist-Corsage-/400790312359

I purchased Styrofoam balls for $1, some specialty paper that was two sided and was 2/$1, from the dollar max store.
The punch was around $12-$14, and the pins were $2.99.
If you don't have that kind of punch, feel free to use a heart shaped punch, or floral punch you already have. You could also cut out shapes but know that it takes more time, do all your cutouts in advance.

Here's the kind of items I used to make the pomanders. I had medium and small Styrofoam balls, so I made both sizes:

                              

Using the punch, punch a whole bunch of flowers, I used more than 100 but I made a few pomanders. I also cut out different paper sides so it would look cute & more festive. When your cutouts are done, take a pin and carefully push it through the center of the flower. You can double up the flowers to make them look more full and off-set them when pinning, I liked them just as much with the one flower.

                               

                            Then push the pin with the flower into the Styrofoam ball.

                               

Continue to do this, making sure to slightly overlap the petals so that they stay closely together when pinned; try not to leave spaces so there aren't any big spots of styro poking through. Do this all around and make as many of these pomanders as you like, in as many sizes as you need.

                                

These are the finished pomander's in different sizes with different paper designs. When you're done feel free to have fun making snazzed up pictures with some cool photo apps like I did down below.

                                

                                  

If you want to see the original post, or maybe need some inspiration for a wedding or baby shower, here is a pic & the link:

                               

http://pizzazzerie.com/parties/tutorial-how-to-make-a-pomander-flower-ball/