White Ranunculus Bouquet

My client Christine asked me if I could make her bridal bouquet, groom's boutonniere and cake flowers. I wanted to share her white ranunculus bridal bouquet. So simple yet so pretty!

Bouquets to Art - zenatona and DK Designs' Style!

This year is the first year I'm attending the Five Star Aloha Gala event in probably 5 years. This one is not to be missed. I was fortunate to be allowed to have a display table of my work and I asked the coordinators and Board of Directors of the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce if I could share the space with my good friend Debbie Friedrich of www.zenatona.etsy.com. I thought Debbie's work really personifies the "Aloha" spirit we all share! She has graciously donated 3 of her wonderful bursts of juicy "aloha" prints for the silent auction & raffle. We're also going to be sharing a table and I thought it would be great to create clay floral pieces that go along with her beautiful canvas art prints.

I haven't completed all the arrangements, but I started playing around with some of the flowers/concepts along with zenatona's canvas prints. The first one I decided to play with is "float". It's one of my absolute favorite prints she created.

Anyway, I consider this our very own Bouquets to Art concept, my interpretation or inspiration from her amazing canvas art prints. I think Debbie and I should take our show on tour! LOL. :) I'll share more images as I complete the pieces. If you're going to be in the San Francisco area and are interested in attending the Five Star Aloha event, please visit, www.hccnc.com for ticket information.

A Very Special Lei...

For the past 3 years, I've been creating a 3 strand pikake and 2 strand pakalana lei that is mounted in a shadow box with an award plaque for the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California's Five Star Aloha Gala. This award has gone to the likes of Sam Choy, Wally Yomanime and June Jones. It truly is an honor to be asked every year to create such an award. I think because the clay flower lei is so unique and not your typical award is why the honorees enjoy them so much. This is a work in progress. I still have some mounting to do to the background, but I just took these shots after I finished the lei itself.
If you'd like to attend the event, visit www.hccnc.com. I've been super busy today making the flowers for various display pieces I will be selling as well as a silent auction arrangement as well. Lots of flowers to make!

A Splash of Citrus Color

Unfortunately I can't elaborate on this piece other than it's for a dear client of mine who's wedding I did last year. She asked me to create this piece for someone special to her for a special occasion and requested specific flowers. I just love the juicy citrus colors of this one. So light and happy. Just thought I would share it with you today.

Red & White Bouquet Order

My client Whitney found me via my Etsy site. She asked if I could make her flowers for her wedding. Initially she liked this fall bouquet I had made for my client back in August/September. She finally decided on red roses, white stephanotis with crystal centers and she asked me if I could add some green elements with some branches which she liked from one of my spring like bouquets.
We did her bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 3 wrist corsages, stephanotis hair flowers, and 6 boutonnieres. The order will ship out tomorrow. I love the texture and dimension that the branches and the green fillers add to this otherwise traditional bouquet of roses and stephanotis blossoms.
I'm busy working on flowers for a lei for a charity event and I'm almost done with the last 50 flowers for that. Pictures soon, I promise. After those 50 flowers are done, I have a bouquet of all white ranunculus to make for another bride to start working on. Never a dull moment in my world.
Best wishes to Whitney and her fiance!

Varying Shades of Pink - A Calla Lily Bouquet

My bride Katherine asked me if I could do her bridal bouquet, 2 bridesmaid bouquets and a matching groom's boutonniere. She sent me a photo of varying shades of pink calla lilies in a bouquet and asked if I could so something similar. She wanted the bouquet stems to be wrapped in white and crisscrossed with black. This is how the bridal bouquet turned out. Katherine is not getting married until August but she has a bridal photo session coming up next week and asked if I could at least get her bouquet done in time. So this bouquet is shipping tomorrow and I hope to finish her bridesmaid bouquets and groom's boutonniere in the next few weeks. This is my last post for the evening. I have to get back to work on my next order of red roses and stephanotis flowers that need to ship on Saturday. Lots of stuff coming up to do this week. Hopefully I'll also be launching a new product on my Etsy site! :) Will keep you posted on that. :)

Daisy Hair Flowers

I had a client recently contact me for African daisies and then she decided on gerbera. Then when it came down to it, she went back to daisies again, but not the African daisy type, more of a traditional one, but with a gerbera style center. Sound confusing? Well, let the pictures do the talking... LOL! :) I think these came out super cute. The bride will have a large and small one, the bridesmaids will have medium sized ones and the flower girl will have a petite one to wear. I love the colors...

My Tennessee Bride's Order - Part II

It's been a busy holiday weekend of flower making and finishing orders for various clients. The biggest one that I had to get out in tomorrow's mail is Kacee's Tiffany Blue inspired flower order! Here are the remaining pieces I created for her. 6 bridesmaid bouquets, 6 groomsmen boutonnieres, 2 ring bearer boutonnieres, 2 father boutonnieres, 8 usher/family/minister boutonnieres, and 6 corsages!

It's always such a great feeling when the order is packed and ready to ship. A sense of accomplishment and relief because the bride loves the photos and is excited about the big box of flowers she is about to receive. I'll be posting a few more entries on other projects I'm working on. But in the meantime, I would like to send my Best Wishes to Kacee and James! Happy Wedding Day!

My Tennessee Bride's Order

Tiffany blue and chocolate brown, what a great color combination that I somehow think will never go out of style. My client Kacee asked me to create her entire bridal party's wedding flowers and let me tell you, it's a lot of bouquets,boutonnieres and corsages. I'm still not done, but it's scheduled to ship on Tuesday Express Mail to her so she can get it on Thursday before her wedding.
Kacee wanted white stephanotis for her bouquet with Tiffany blue rhinestones and her bridesmaids to have Tiffany blue colored hydrangeas. Well, Tiffany blue hydrangeas don't really exist, but in clay they can. I think it actually came out quite nice. I still have to do some detail painting of the hydrangeas, but I sent these images to Kacee so she can see what will be coming to her very soon. Thank goodness it's a long weekend because it will be a long weekend of working!

More photos to come later...

The Final Look of Kara's Favors

Sorry for the lack of my blog love this week. With all the wedding orders due, my mother-in-law has been critically ill and my husband had to fly to be with her and his siblings. We're happy to say her condition is much improved and my son is so happy to get to talk to his Grandma and she is so happy to hear his voice. We only wish we could be there to see her in person.
I am shipping Kara's 110 favors today! I'm so happy to mark this one off the list. It was a lot of work, but I have to say it went a lot faster than the 100 peony favors I worked on the week before. I have 2 more big orders I need to finish by the weekend (another reason why we couldn't fly out to see my mother-in-law). I love the rich, vibrant colors of the turquoise and orange. Happy Wedding Day to my fabulous clients, Kara and Rob!

Boutonnieres and Corsages for a Destination France Bride

I have a destination France bride who contacted me after seeing the floral arrangement in In Style Weddings magazine via Estilo Weddings. She asked me if I could create her bridal party flowers and centerpieces. So since her wedding is in August but she and her groom are traveling back and forth before then, she asked me if I could do some of the pieces for her. Here's the first of the order, the boutonnieres and corsages. She asked her family and her fiance's family to decide what they wanted for their boutonniere and corsage so each one got to decide. It was my first time making a closed center camelia and my first time doing a carnation. Not bad.

Here are the pictures.. Enjoy... Now back to work on 110 wedding favors...

The Making of 150 Gardenia Favor Boxes!

I've been working on another project this week, 150 mini gardenia flowers to fit on a 2x2x2 inch favor box for a charity event I'm sponsoring for the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California's 7th Annual Five Start Gala Event! This year is supposed to be the biggest one yet! The honoree recipient is Roy Yamaguchi of Roy's Restaurants. One of our favorite places to eat on the islands. I've been making the honoree awards for 3 years and this is my 4th year. They asked me if I would like to sponsor the goody bags as well. So between now and June 4th I will be finishing up the 150 gardenia favor boxes (which I'm able to make 25 gardenias in 60 minutes), finish the 5 strand pikake & pakalana lei for the award, the raffle/silent auction centerpiece and create at least 5-10 arrangements to display and sell at the event. Thank you to Cocoa Bon of Los Gatos for donating the Bellini flavored Jelly Bellys for the event! They come in this cute truffle size tin and they are super tasty! I will be posting more images as I make more items for the event. If you're interested in attending this black tie optional formal event and support a good cause, click here!

The Making of 100 Peony Favors!

All I have to say is that I'm glad that my peony flower favors are done! Well, the making of the flowers anyway! tomorrow my helpers are coming to help glue the rest of the peonies on the boxes, add the favor tags to each box and stuff the cookies in the boxes before we ship on Saturday. I have a client in Florida who ordered 100 peony favors from me. Ivory peonies on a ivory laid textured box with ivory and gold ribbons. Her favor tag has palm trees and a wonderful combination of cardstocks. My wrist started hurting. It took me 3 days to complete 100 peonies of 20 petals each and 3 rows of fringe. Not an easy task.
I also managed to make some samples for clients on the invitation side, hair flowers for Etsy clients and 25 mini gardenias for 2" favor boxes for a charity event I'm sponsoring on June 4th. More about that in another blog post! I figured out I average 25 gardenias in 60 minutes which is about 2 minutes and 40 seconds per flower with 17 petals each. Not too shabby. Only 125 left to go plus a bunch of flowers for other orders.
Every day is going to be insanely busy for the next 4 weeks!

Today Marks My 300th Sale on Etsy!

Wow! Today is a great day for me! I finally hit 300 sales on my Etsy site! The item sold was the vase arrangement with my cymbidium orchids, fuchsia pink peony buds, ivory roses and hydrangeas! It was one of my patrons who has purchased a few of my pieces recently and in the past!

Thank you so much to all my www.dkdesignshawaii.etsy.com buyers! YOU ROCK! :) Here's chipping away at the 400th sale. Although it might take me a little longer to get there with all my wedding orders that I have coming due. I've got 60 more peonies to make for my favor box order and then try to get some bridal bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres done for another client and then after that more favors!Another great thing I found out this morning is that I was featured on the Etsy Weddings & Celebrations Gift Guide with my anemone, rose and sweet pea arrangement as well as on the home page on Mother's Day!

New Items on Etsy - Home Decor Arrangements

I've been frantically trying to get various projects done. My blog posts will be few and somewhat far between due to the number of orders I have to get out the door, but when something new pops up I will definitely share it with you.

I was looking at my Etsy site and although bridal bouquets are nice to showcase, I decided that most of those who find me on Etsy see the workmanship and then decide to ask me to do custom work. So since I didn't have time to make new flowers, I decided to take the flowers I have and create home decor pieces. So the green cymbidium orchid, ivory rose and tuberose bridal bouquet I made has morphed itself into two new listings on Etsy. I will also be morphing my Victorian bouquet into a floral arrangement for the home as well in the next few days.
It seems a shame to dismantle my bouquets and create home decor pieces, but I would rather them be enjoyed by people and many of my clients are not brides so they might enjoy these flowers as well in their homes or to give as special gifts for loved ones.

Tomorrow I have to tackle 94 peonies for favor boxes so I have to get back to work on those ASAP as I have 110 flowers to make for another favor box order, several bridal bouquet orders, and a fundraiser event I'm doing. I'll be burning the midnight oil for the next few weeks and then some! As a side note, I'm 1 sale away from hitting 300 sales on Etsy since February 2008! Such a wonderful achievement, especially since it seems like it was yesterday that I hit 200 sales!

DK Designs Clay Cake Flowers and Favor Boxes Featured on the Storque on Etsy!

Today was an awesome day! I got featured twice on Etsy's The Storque! I was featured in the vintage article for my peony cake flowers and the other article was Etsy Finds for Say I Do to Handmade which featured my cherry blossom favor boxes at the bottom of the article! It's always fabulous when other artisans in your field see the talent in what you do. Especially when it comes from out of the blue. Makes me eager to start working on getting more items posted on my Etsy site! Just so bogged down with bridal orders now that it's hard to do both. Hopefully I find more time here and there to make extra flowers to come up with some new items to sell. Thank you for all the wonderful coverage today Etsy!