Basic Tools Needed to Make a Great Wood Flower Arrangement

These are a few of my favorite things!

(Yes, I was singing that while typing )

Here's a quick list of the top tools I use on a regular basis while creating sola wood flower arrangements. You can find links to just about everything in the materials section!

1) Hot Glue Gun

I use a power Ryobi hot glue gun (because I love thinking of my glue gun as a real power tool!). That said, you do not need to use a power glue gun - any high temp glue gun will work just fine for your sola wood crafting projects. Some ways you will use it:

• Stemming the flowers (gluing a floral wire to the bottom of the flower)
• Stemming loose greenery (gluing a floral wire to any leafy or filler bits and bobs that are laying around)
• Gluing the floral foam to the bottom of the vase or container you are working on
• Gluing the flowers onto all sorts of home decor projects that you imagine and create!

Sidenote - I do truly love this glue gun! So much so that over on Facebook during one of my many crafty live videos, we named him. Feel free to give Vikram a shout out in the comments

2) Silicone mat

So this supply isn't 100% necessary but...it is one of the handiest tools while hot gluing flowers and other various projects. The silicone mat is THE BEST at catching hot glue. Once the glue has completely cooled down and dried, you can peel the glue right off the mat and throw it away. Easy-peasy, no mess!

3) Clippers

My clipper taste has evolved as my use of greenery/filler has grown :). Sometimes those can be tough to cut through but these clippers have made it easy! I have used these for over a year and they are holding strong. In addition to cutting greenery and filler stems, they are also perfect to cut the floral wires I use to stem the wood flowers (to prep them for arrangements).

4) Floral Wire

I typically like to use an 18 gauge floral stem wire for vase arrangements as well as bouquets. The higher the gauge number, the more flexible the wire is. The lower the gauge, the sturdier the wire. I suggest playing with a few different gauges and find your favorite. 

5) Paddle Wire, Binding Wire, Zip Ties

These are three of my favorite tools to attach longer greenery stems to wreaths and other wall hangings. They are a bit sturdier than tape and so they are better equipped to hold down larger pieces. Quick tip: I like to have 2-3 wire/zip tie connection points of wire to further keep the greenery in place!

7) Floral Tape, Vinyl Tape

I primarily use this as a way to hold my stems together while making floral hand-tied bouquet. Either works great but quick tip about floral tape: to “activate” the stickiness of the glue in the tape, first pull/stretch it a bit and then wrap!

8) Wood Flowers!

My personal favorite part of every craft! We at Oh You’re Lovely have the largest selection of sola wood flower styles in the country - over 100 styles to choose from! If you are new to wood flowers, take a look at our assortments. They can give you a hint of some of the different styles and help you learn which are your favorites!

9) Craft Paint 

Yes you can dye your sola wood flowers for around $0.50 a bottle and that little bottle will go a LONG way. Every time I stop at a craft store, I grab a few new colors to play with on flowers. I can’t help myself! You can use all different types of paint and dyes (latex house paint, RIT dye, powdered paint, watercolors, etc.) and can experiment with additives (paint medium, glycerin, dish soap) - more on all of those in future posts! - BUT...acrylic craft paint is the absolute easiest and most affordable way to get started!

10) Floral Foam (not pictured but important!)

We carry floral foam in our shop but it is also readily available in pretty much any craft store. There are a lot of different shapes and sizes to choose from! One thing to note - you want DRY craft/floral foam. Wet foam is used for fresh florals and can crumble and lose its shape. I like to use foam to put in vases and vessels as it helps to hold the wires in place. If you have any concerns about it showing through gaps in your arrangements, you can cover it using things like paper or moss (or use more greenery/flowers to fill the gaps!).

Get more tips on how to make artificial flower arrangements.

Want to make a finished piece with me?

Give Oh You’re Lovely a follow - a video tutorial of how I made it is up next!