DIY: Autumn Floral Crown

The golden days of autumn are here in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Summer has taken its time leaving, giving us chilly mornings, warm sunny days, and making all the colors of autumn a more joyous experience with glorious sunlight shining through the changing leaves.  

And with those colorful changes my mind has turned to fun ways in which to celebrate the season, and flowers, of course, are the perfect way to do that. I recently picked up a fall bouquet at a local market and was inspired by the seasonal color palette to create an autumn floral crown. The mix of colors in the bouquet reminded me of all the hues I see in the changing leaves - yellow, orange, pink and red, with green hanging in there for as long as it can.    

This simple yet colorful crown can be made with just a few supplies: floral wire, floral tape, some junky scissors, and of course flowers. Along with the flowers in the bouquet, I already had on hand a bow and some little birds, left over from a silk flower crown I had made a couple years ago. I also happened to gather some alder seed cones when I was out walking with my daughter recently, and decided to use those as well.

The first step is to create the shape of the crown with the floral wire. This is as easy as pulling out enough wire from the spool, and then wrapping it around your head and adding about 1-2 inches to that measurement. Cut the wire. Repeat this two more times until you have three strands. Twist the strands together, and make a circle with them, twisting all six ends together, like so:

Wrap all six strands into the circle you've made. This will be the back of the crown. Now it's time to wrap the entire crown with floral tape - here's mine in the process:

Since I wanted my crown to be symmetrical, I started in the front with the two pink flowers you see here:

Now it's time to fill the rest of the crown with flowers. If you'll notice, I next used some small bright orange pompoms because its leaves run for the full length of the stem, and make a perfect foundation to develop the crown from:

At this point, I added the bow at the back of the crown, and placed one of the birds at the front where the two pink flowers are. Then, I continued wrapping the orange pompom flowers around the crown:

Once all the pompom flowers were in place, I began adding in the yellow flowers and used two bunches of the alder seed cones - one on each side near the front:

Next, I added in the red-orange flowers and two more yellow flowers towards the back of the crown:

And here is the finished crown:

And the last step is to wear and enjoy your crown. Grab a friend or family member, and have some fun capturing some photos of you wearing your very own lovely Autumn Floral Crown!