Hi, I am Sandy with Bay Floral and today, we are going to make a Swag.

I have a couple of pieces of ficus leaves. You might see a ficus tree, a silk one in many offices or homes and we are just going to intertwine them.

So you can see about the size, there are Swag is going to be right away.

And once you over lay up them, then, I like to take a little wire and wrap it around the center.

Make sure you have the center because you do not like to be off balanced.

And just wrap that around a few times to keep it together.

And have some baby’s breath or forgetmenots, depending on what you would like to call it,

And we are going to put two stems into our Swag.

And now, you can already start to see the size, the shape and the colors.

And again, we will wire that on. Same wire, just keep wrapping it around. You can use school wire or just the single piece of wire.

There is a light gage, 24 or 26. 22 is getting a little too heavy. So, a light gage wire,

And how pretty buds looking already.

Now, I like to design in foam because it gives a little more heighten ability to design better.

So, I am going to put a little glue on this from the glue pot,

And, put a piece of foam right here in the center of our Swag.

Hold it down for a few minutes so it holds on tight and if you want to put a little moss on top of it, you can use a little Spanish moss to cover up the foam,

And if you are worried the glue would not hold, take another piece of wire, wrapping it right around that foam, the moss and the stems that we have already wired together.

And that will hold everything together very nicely for you.

The next I am going to do is make a little bow when I am not going to sure you how to make a bow, you have to watch another one of our videos for that.

But, we are going to make a bow very quickly using this wire edge ribbon, it is a beautiful. It is got shimmering shades to it and looks very nice and pick up all the colors I am going to use with the flowers.

And we are going to cover up our foam and moss right away using this bow.

See how easy bow making is?

Okay really, it is very difficult but,

(Laughing)

Wire that bow,

I am going to cut the wires,

And stick that right into the foam.

And this does several things; it ties together the colors that we are using,

Covers up that whole block of foam and moss and know, we can add some more flowers to our Swag.

I have one more stem of our baby’s breath and I am going to cut that one up and put it near the bow,

Because you do not want to have purple flowers at the edge but no purple flowers in the center. And it looks like you have taken two separate arrangements and tied them together in the middle. And we want this to look similar all the way through.

You always want to carry your color all the way through.

And, I need to cut this one down a little,

And see how nice that is? Is just to add that color in all the way around.

Now, here is my favorite flower,

Look at this hydrangea, is it not this beautiful?

I know what you are saying is how can that go into this Swag? But, you watch,

We are going to take this one hydrangea and cut it into some smaller pieces,

And is it not beautiful still?

These large hydrangeas are beautiful in a vase but that does not mean we cannot use them, in smaller arrangements,

And I am going to put one of our steel picks on it from the steel pick machine,

And this will stick right into the foam.

See how nice, how quick and how easy?

The steel pick machine is a wonderful tool for every flower shop and even to have in your home.

Now, we have taken that very large hydrangea, put it into small groups and place it in our arrangement.

The last flower that I have chosen is this lovely alstroemeria and I thought this would kind of blend the colors from a creamy pink and lighten up the purple that we have used in here,

So, we are going to cut some of the stem off. Leaving some of the flowers on and again, arrange this right into out foam.

The foam gives you easy accessibility, quick design,

And see how it bring the color out the edge with that?

I am using two stems of the alstroemeria,

And this is a perfect design for over a door or a window or a mirror, there are so many places that you can hang a Swag.

Now, again, as I use the purple on the edges and also in the center, I am going to do the same with the alstroemeria.

Putting some small pieces at the outside and again, in towards the center.

How beautiful, how quick and how easy, this is a Swag.