Snake Plant Tutorial

Several months ago, Otterine blogged about her amazing entry for the 2015 HBS Creatin' Contest. One of the things she did was to make a mini snake plant for her retro abode. Since then, I have been looking for the book that she mentioned "Miniature Plants Made from Florist's Tape" by Ruth Hanke.  I have found the book, but it's generally about $20.00+ for a book that is really a booklet and I can't seem to justify that much.  Anyway I found a video tutorial of  snake plants made from twist ties by Joanne's Minis.

Since I was on vacation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try while my kids and husband were fishing.  As much as I despise WalMart, it was the only place where I could get supplies all in one place, so off to WalMart I went to get the goods. By the way the WalMart on Houghton Michigan is the only one that I have ever been to that was actually clean, somewhat organized and the people who work there are nice. That aside, here are the supplies:

Florist wire, floral tape, glue, paint, scissors and floral foam. Most of these you can most likely get at the dollar store.

First, I cut the wire down to various lengths then I cut the floral tape into small strips.  I found out that floral tape really isn't much of a tape.  It's really not sticky at all.

I used a paint brush to apply glue to one piece of the floral tape then I placed a piece of wire in the center with about 1/2 inch sticking out on one end.  Then I placed another piece of floral tape on top and pressed them together.  I did this several times to make several leaves.

Next, I cut down the leaves and gave them a bit of a point at the top.

I mixed up two shades of green one light and one a little darker.  I painted squiggly lines in the lighter color then went back with the darker shade to blend the colors.  Once that dried, I mixed up a light yellow and went along the outer edges.

Then I stuck the wire ends into some floral foam to let the leaves dry.

 Next, I chose a planter and cut down a little piece of floral foam to fit inside the planter.  I dipped the wire end of the leaves in glue then stuck them into the foam.  Last I glued fish tank gravel around the base of the plant to cover the foam.  I was looking for some kind of "dirt" and the only thing I could think of is coffee grounds and quite frankly, the smell of coffee makes me gag (sorry coffee lovers).

Voila!

Feel free to use this tutorial to make your own snake plants!