tutorial: make faux succulents from ribbons

as i've been scouring my house for crafting / decorating supplies during quarantine,

i've unearthed a LOT of stuff that i had forgotten about!
case in point: a tin container of multicolored ribbons shoved in a box.
i pulled them out, separated them by color, and looked at the pile of green ribbons

with an eye toward using them somehow in the new guest room decor.

nothing immediately came to me UNTIL i walked outside that evening to water our plants.

i looked over at a galvanized bucket filled with succulents and BING! 

bells started ringing in my head.

a nice 'play' session ensued, where i messed around with paper, scissors, and glue

to combine with those ribbons and turn them into a decor element.

once that was done, i attached them to something already in the room -

and i really like the way this one turned out!

continue reading for the before, during, after, 

AND a tutorial to walk you through making your own faux succulents from ribbons!

the completed project appears on top of the armoire in the newly refreshed guest room:

...but before it looked like THAT, it looked like THIS:

on the left side is 'before' the room makeover - sculpture in shades of orange and rust.

on the right side is 'during' the room makeover - where the sculpture is a solid brown.

that's because i turned it around so all you see is the BACK side!

(talk about EASY decorating tricks....)

up close, on top of the armoire, it pairs with half of a rusty metal fan cage
and clear glass vases, 'planted' with more faux succulents & cacti:

here's a real close-up shot of the faux succulent details:

there are four different kinds of faux succulents shown here,

with some leaves from a fabric spider plant tucked in.

below, you'll see the faux succulents BEFORE i wired them to the sculpture...

left side: strips of rayon seam binding looped and bunched up.
center: one green 'bumpy' chenille stem ('pipe cleaners') folded into loops and bunched up.

lower right: a ribbon flower that came on a gift years ago.

 upper right: the ribbon succulents that i made.
 my tutorial for those is below.

what you need:

a glue stick and hot glue (or tacky glue)

scissors . ribbons of whatever color you choose
(don't worry about width, we'll discuss that in a minute)

poster board or card stock paper
a pencil

what you do: 

(numbers below relate to photo order above: top to bottom, left to right each row)

1 & 2. glue ribbon to poster board / cardstock using glue stick
you'll need this to be about 1 1/2 inches wide for the smaller 'petals',

and approximately 2 inches for the larger ones.
if your ribbon is thinner than that, simply glue TWO pieces of ribbon

side by side onto the paper backing. (pic of that below)

3. flip it over and draw some 'petal' shapes onto the backside of the paper.

try to get as close together and to the edges as you can, to maximize the ribbon surface.

4. cut those out.

NOTICE that while i drew mine with rounded edges, that's NOT how i cut them out...
i figured this out as i went along!

TIP: just cut straight across, edge to edge.
5.THEN go back and cut the tips off of the wider edge to 'round' it.

6. cut a small circle from the poster board / card stock,

and use the hot glue / tacky glue to glue the points of the 'petals' to the circle.

7. first layer of petals completed.
8. gently bend the ends of the petals so they curve downward.

9. make two of these 'florets' - one smaller in size than the other.
10. use hot glue or tacky glue to adhere the small one on top of the large one.

that method created the smallest succulent in my project.
for the larger one shown below, it's a similar method:

the 'petals' here are more angular - those ends aren't as rounded as the small one.

i used two pieces of ribbon, so the largest petal width here is about 3 inches.

i made two layers of the 'floret' with those petals, gluing them to a paper circle.

then i cut some smaller petals for a smaller third one, 

and adhered all three of the florets together with hot glue.

on each of these completed succulents, i hot glued a chenille stem (pipe cleaner) onto the back, 

and used that to twist around the arms of the metal sculpture piece

to hold the succulents in place.

you could easily substitute felt or velvet for the ribbon to make these, too! 

TIP: i like using the heavy paper backing so that it adds bulk to the florets.

fabric alone seems to go limp and flat.

links to posts mentioned above:

no-cost boho guest room makeover
.