kio kreations

Floral Design Class: Vintage-Inspired

kiokreations — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:45:41 +0000

This week’s class we did vintage-inspired arrangements in vases of the students’ choosing. The homework from last week was to bring a vintage container that cost under $10 and was under 12″ in height. Containers bought included teapots, etched glass vases, candy dishes, and glass bowls. The flowers and foliage we used were vast and included: pink and ivory wax flower, muted peach and pink stock, white statice, purple double tulips, red Dutch tulips, white French tulips, curly willow tips, Lypocodium, Italian Pittosporum, ti leaf, Heather, ivory and peach spray roses, eggplant and ivory mums, ivory and pink lisianthus, blackberries and frog balls.

We did 3 different techniques for arranging the flowers depending on the vase type/shape. Most of the class used fresh wet floral foam (Instant Oasis), a few gridded the top of their odd-shaped containers with tape and one of them just made a bouquet in hand, tied it with ribbon and put it in the vase. While this is probably the most challenging way to design of the 3 ways–hers turned out great along with all of the others. The whole idea today was to get a look that was ethereal, whimsical and ornate. The rich textures and mostly muted tones really lent themselves to feeling vintage/antique. Everyone agreed today’s design lesson was much harder than last week’s cluster-style. Next week we do bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages. Should be a fun challenge for all. It is hard to get your hands to do holding and taping of flowers when you are not used to it.

View the Class Gallery

Click to download this week’s worksheet:

Floral Design 101: Vintage-Inspired

I would not be a good teacher if I didn’t do a little design of my own…here is the arrangement I made:

Bridal Shower & Studio Opening Flowers

kiokreations — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:28 +0000

I did two smaller events this past weekend. The first was flowers for Lindsay who had her bridal shower at Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton. The space had a lot of mahogany colored woodwork and forest green accents, so we wanted to warm it up with some rich, but feminine tones. We did 3 short round centerpieces of magenta peonies, burgundy and ivory tulips with a ti leaf wrap inside surrounded by votive candles. On the mantel, we displayed photos of the couple flanked by 2 trios of submerged ivory tulip cylinders with ivory floating candles at top. In the foyer on the punch table, we had a 14″ cylinder vase with curly willow and lily grass accents along with sculptural ivory tulips. I also made a pearl bracelet ivory wrist corsage for Lindsay to wear and added an ivory ribbon to the gift card holder. Everything fit the space and them so beautifully.

View the Shower Flowers

I also did flowers for my friend Kara Schultz’s Studio Opening this past Sunday. I used her new logo colors as the inspiration for flowers. I used blue thistle, red tulips, burgundy mokara orchids, brown mini cymbidium orchids, and mustard yellow Billy Balls to make 4 accent pieces to be displayed in the new space. They turned out really cool and Kara loved them.

View the Studio Opening Flowers

Here are pro photos that Kara took below…

Floral Design Class: Cluster Look

kiokreations — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 05:47:35 +0000

My 6-week “Intro to Floral Design” class at the Naperville Art League started last week. We have a great group of 8 women interested in floral design for home decor, weddings and as a career. Tonight was our second day and we did “cluster-style” arrangements. We had roses, tulips and stock in bright colors with lily grass to work with. Arrangement style #1 was a bubble bowl with a cluster of roses, stock and tulips inside (segmented by color/texture) and style #2 was a trio of 3 cylinder vases with single flower types in each vase. We also talked about color theory and color palettes and realized that many of the women had analogous palettes, one had a complementary palette, and everyone had a “summer brights” for color scheme as we had a mix of yellow, orange, pinks, white and purple flowers available for class today. Everyone seems to really be getting the hang of things and some very lovely arrangements were created.

View the Class Gallery

Want to learn more? Click below to download:

Next week we do “Vintage-Inspired” looks in antique/retro containers. Everyone is bringing their own container/s and we’re working with totally different flower types than today. We’ll have an ethereal mix of things and items with unusual textures including wax flower, spray roses, statice, lisianthus, thistle, and assorted premium foliage. I am very excited to see what the ladies come up with next week!

A Blue and Ivory Arrowhead Affair

kiokreations — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:11:05 +0000

Liz and Jack were married at Century Chapel at Naper Settlement and had their reception at Arrowhead Golf Club in Wheaton. Their colors were blue and ivory and flowers included callas, orchids, tulips, thistle, iris, hydrangea and monkey tail.

For the personal flowers, Liz carried a posh, Euro-style all-white Phaleanopsis orchid bouquet. It had 7 stems of orchids hand-tied into a cascading shape. It was so stunning! The bridesmaids and Mother of Honor carried bouquets of calla lilies with monkey tail accents. The bouts and corsages consisted of callas and orchids and some also had monkey tail accents.

For the ceremony, I designed a custom monogrammed aisle runner for the aisle. We attached blue hydrangea to every-other pew and put 2 altarpieces at the altar. We also did 2 parent offerings.

For the reception, I made Chicago table numbers, a seating chart, Thank You signs, and Bride and Groom signs to accompany all of the beautiful flowers we did. We reused the altarpieces on 2 tables in the cocktail area and recycled the hydrangea from the pews in the same area on the highboys and accent tables. The monogram from the aisle runner was reused on the DJ table so it was front-and-center on the dance floor. To hold the gift cards, I did my signature floral-rimmed gift card holding vase in blue and white flowers including thistle, iris, stock, hydrangea, delphinium and tulips. For the head table, we accented the sweetheart table with vases for the bouquets, a toss bouquet and petals.

The centerpieces consisted of two styles: half of them were large bubble bowls with sculptural callas and variegated lily grass and the other half were cylinder trios with submerged thistle, orchids and tulips and floating candles on top. Submerging the thistle was the bride’s idea and I totally loved it! I will totally be using thistle again in the future! It has a great texture!

I really enjoyed working with Liz and her mom planning her wedding. I wish her and Jack a wonderful life together as husband and wife!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Rowe!

View the Gallery

Winter Love Birds at Carriage Greens

kiokreations — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:09:31 +0000

Justine and John were married in the Century Chapel at Naper Settlement and had their reception at Carriage Greens Country Club in Darien. Their colors were black and ivory with accents of red. There was a subtle bird and damask motif throughout the event. Flowers included anemones, hydrangea, dendrobium orchids, roses, sweetheart roses and tulips.

For the personal flowers, Justine carried a beautiful bouquet of white hydrangea, lisianthus, sweetheart roses, roses, parrot tulips and anemones with black centers. The bridesmaids carried bouquets of anemones a with hydrangea base. The bouts were made of anemones and the corsages had sweetheart and regular roses in them.

For the ceremony, I made a custom monogrammed aisle runner and parent offerings.

For the reception, we made 2 styles of centerpiece. Style one was a tall pilsner vases with hydrangea, manzanita branches decorated with bling and orchids with an up-light in the bottom. Style two was a 12 inch cylinder vase with submerged white dendrobium orchid stem inside, black bear grass accents and a floating candle on top. They sat atop damask circle runners that I sewed. I also made a damask runner that we put across the head table along with a vase for the bridal bouquet. We put the monogrammed part of the aisle runner on the head table as well. One of the best details of the day was the awesome cake which was beautifully decorated with bird silhouettes and intricate scroll-work. I added some fresh anemones to complete the look.

It was a beautiful event and Justine loved everything from her bouquet to the centerpieces–she could not have been happier! I really enjoyed working with her on she and John’s wedding. It was a beautiful affair!

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. Wilson!

View the Gallery

Love Brew(ed)!

kiokreations — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 04:42:48 +0000

We had our Love Brews Wedding Event last weekend and it was awesome. The room was so beautifully decorated with linens from The Chair Couture, stationery from Big Day Boutique, photography from AC Design & Photography, and of course flowers by Kio Kreations. We also had mellow music courtesy of XL-Entertainment and tasty treats thanks to Baked By Betsy. During the event, Cynthia Sally did makeovers, Lindsay from Big Day Boutique painted glasses and I made bouquets throughout the duration of the event. We had a nice turnout and it was a really fun time for all of us. It is great to work with vendors you enjoy and trust!

View the Gallery

Last Chance to Learn Floral Design

kiokreations — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 07:45:49 +0000

I will be offering a 6-week Intro to Floral Design Class that starts Monday, February 22, 2010 at the Naperville Art League!

Class size is limited so sign up ASAP!

This class is open to anyone who is interested in learning floral design and we will cover both basic floral design techniques for home decoration, events & parties AND some DIY Wedding Flower basics. It is held Monday nights and goes from February 22 – March 29. This is a 6 week courses with most supplies and flowers included. To sign up, contact Debbie at the Naperville Art League. You can visit the website for more info and email: naperartleague@aol.com or call: 630-355-2530.

Click the below links to see the class brochure.

Intro to Floral Design Class

-
As some of you know, I love to teach! While in college I was an art teacher for a year; I’ve taught floral design as a volunteer at the Chicago Botanic Garden, paper making, cartooning, drawing and corsage making for the Kane County 4-H Program, puppet making at the Morton Arboretum, and I was even featured on HGTV’s “That’s Clever!” in March of 2009 demonstrating 2 crafts I made!

If there are other topics you are interested in learning such as basic drawing, or even Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator tutorials–just let me know. I also teach private art lessons from my studio or even on site to both children and adults. If you have any other questions please contact me!

Love Brews is Almost Here!

kiokreations — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:45:22 +0000

Our LOVE BREWS Wedding Event is just around the corner on Sunday, February 21, 2010 from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Emmett’s Brewing Company in Palatine. Please join us for live demonstrations at this “Anti-Expo” which will feature a small (but talented) group of Chicagoland Wedding Professionals. In addition to showcasing our talents we will also feature some of 2010’s best wedding trends. Our event is FREE and open to our existing clients, newly-engaged couples who are still looking for great vendors and wedding planners & coordinators.
We hope to see you there!

Just Added to the Show: Baked by Betsy!
We are happy to announce that in addition to our existing great bunch of vendors, we’ve just added the fabulous bakery Baked by Betsy to the mix. Betsy will be bringing cupcakes as well as other treats for your tasting pleasure!

Win Goodies!
Every hour we will be drawing a winner (or two) to receive great freebies. Items will include fresh flowers and certificates for free monogrammed aisle runners, gift card boxes, and more!

Bring Your Fiance…
And if he isn’t super excited about looking at flowers and invitations, he can watch the Olympics, Golf or Nascar in the bar upstairs of the event. Emmett’s is a full service bar and restaurant located in downtown Palatine right next to the train station.

We Hope to See You There!

Visit Our Website
For more Information, Directions & list of Vendors.

Zazzle Stickers that Dazzle

kiokreations — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:59:07 +0000

I am so excited because I just got in my new business stickers (plus 2 sets of stickers for the LOVE BREWS Candy Buffet) and they turned out great! Zazzle totally rocks! If you are looking for stickers for your wedding favors or OOT boxes, check out ZAZZLE. You can design your own with your monogram, or I can design them for you, or you can pick from their existing designs and personalize them by adding your names and date. The quality of the product is really nice and they come in 20 ct sheets for around $5 a sheet, which is pretty affordable.

Here are the ones for LOVE BREWS:

Here are some that I designed for one of my brides that were used on her favors…

View the Graphic Design for Wedding Gallery

Feeling Inspired…

kiokreations — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:35:51 +0000

These are a couple of items that will be part of the LOVE BREWS Event…if you want to see more–you MUST come to our show!

Anyway, I digress.

January ended with a bang…we finished the month with a fabulous wedding (our 5th for the year so far!) and have a lot of things on the horizon. Kio Kreations is going strong and virtually booked up for the year…(see availability calendar for the few days we still have available). We totally appreciate all of our great clients and we are blessed to have such a vocal, happy group who keep getting us more and more referrals! Just a reminder that in addition to wedding flowers, we also do flowers for corporate events, bridal showers, baby showers, rehearsal dinners, and larger anniversary parties. We also do all the fun graphic design stuff for events-we do basically everything except invitations…

View the Graphic Design for Weddings Gallery

-
Some upcoming events for us include our wedding showcase at LOVE BREWS. This “anti-expo” was my brainchild and will feature 6-7 unique, indie (independent) vendors and live demos. We will also be providing beverages and a candy buffet to all of our guests. We welcome all our our clients and newly-engaged couples to attend. As part of the event, I will be making a TON of fresh floral centerpieces and bouquets. Some of the bouquets I will actually be making in person–so you can actually see me work live! There will also be raffles to win flowers and other fun prizes. All of the vendors in the showcase are wildly talented at what they do and I work with them on a regular basis. XL-Entertainment, Cynthia Sally, Amy Christian, and The Chair Couture were all a part of my own wedding last year! That is how great I think they are–so great I hired them myself!

I encourage everyone to come to this show as its a huge deal for me to be able to showcase my flowers and basically go all out. I know people hate attending things alone, so bring your fiance, friend or mother along. If you are having trouble dragging your fiance to wedding events, just drop him off at the bar upstairs from the event. Emmett’s Brewing Company in Palatine has a large bar area with flatscreen TV’s featuring the best sporting events on that day. Just to drive the point home, here is the sporting event schedule that day:

Winter Olympics (including Men’s Hockey)
Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya
WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship
NASCAR in Fontana (starts at 3pm)

That should show you how much I want you to come! So, please, join us at the LOVE BREWS Event on Sunday, February 21, 2010 from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. Come when you want, stay as long as you want, and be inspired.

Check out the LOVE BREWS Website…

If you cannot make it to LOVE BREWS, you can always get inspiration here in my full galleries on flickr!
-

Get Ready for GET WEDDY!

Also, I am a part of a new organization called “Chic Wed Pros” which stands for Chicagoland Wedding Professionals and we are doing a wedding planning newsletter called “Get Weddy Chicago” which will feature advice, tips & trends from Real Chicago-area wedding professionals. Upcoming articles include Top 10 Ways to Save Money, Flowers 101, Best Indoor Photo Locations, etc. You can sign up to receive the articles on the Get Weddy Website.

kio kreations

Floral Design Class: Vintage-Inspired

Bridal Shower & Studio Opening Flowers

Floral Design Class: Cluster Look

A Blue and Ivory Arrowhead Affair

Winter Love Birds at Carriage Greens

Love Brew(ed)!

Last Chance to Learn Floral Design

Love Brews is Almost Here!

Zazzle Stickers that Dazzle

Feeling Inspired…

Get Ready for GET WEDDY!

Here are some of my other FAVORITE Wedding Websites: