DIY // FLOWER CROWN

'I'd rather wear flowers in my hair than diamonds around my neck.'

I instantly fell in love with flower crowns the first time I laid eyes on them. They have such a whimsical and feminine style, and remind me of childhood fairy tales. Although there are some great online stores out there that sell beautiful flower crowns (KisforKani, Roses&Clementines and Crown&Glory, just to name a few of my favourites), I decided to get crafty and make my own crown for a 21st party I attended over the weekend.

You will need: 1. A crown base (You can make your own with floral wire, use a thin headband, or use an old crown like I did). 2. Some fake flowers. 3. A pair of sturdy scissors. 4. Floral tape (I got this from my local 'everything' store; craft stores should have them too).

The first thing you need to do is make your base. For me, that involved hacking away the existing flowers on an old crown that I don't wear anymore (RIP flowers). If you're making one from scratch, wrap the floral wire around your head until you get the desired fit, then cut 1.5 times that length and twist the excess wire together. Check the fit again and adjust as necessary.

You should end up with something like this.

Cut the fake flowers from their stems. This can be tough so make sure your scissors are up for it!

Make sure to leave about 3-4cm of stem to work with. (I also cut off some of the white buds that came with the fake flowers but I didn't end up using them).

Take a long piece of floral tape (about 20cm) and start wrapping it around the stem of a flower and the crown base.

Keep wrapping your way up and down the stem until you use up all the tape. Make sure you're pulling the tape relatively tight as you go.

Tadaa! One flower nice and secure.

Now place the next flower on top of the wrapped stem of the first one and start doing the same thing again.

Make sure that you're wrapping the tape in the same direction as the first flower.

After a few more flowers..

You can either choose to wrap flowers all the way around the crown, or stop at a point and leave the back empty. If you decide to go with the later, just wrap floral tape around the exposed wire to make everything neat and tidy. If you're using a headband, leave the ends (i.e. the parts that sit behind/above your ears) flower-free.

And you're done! A gorgeous little flower crown that's perfect for your next party, picnic, festival or just when you want to feel pretty.

As Spring is slowly but surely approaching the Southern Hemisphere, I'll definitely be making more of these! I can't wait to experiment with different flower sizes, colours and foliage to see what combinations I can come up with.

(P.S. My next post will be my outfit from the 21st party featuring this crown, so stay tuned!)