Jayna’s callas & orchids bouquet was a stunning, chic, textured mix of eggplant callas, white callas, Picasso callas, mini green cymbidium orchids, and purple dendrobium orchids. The handle had a very simple wrap and photo charms attached to it which can be seen in this image.

Photo by Holly Hoyt Photography

Every May, we donate flowers to the Derby Day Event held by the Lymphoma Research Foundation. Last year we did the very traditional Southern-inspired mint julep vases filled with red roses. This year I wanted to so something more wild and interesting but still very “Derby” in feel. So I designed “prize ribbons” with the logo on them which were attached to each of the ten small pieces and the larger showpiece. I used a variety of flowers that look like they’d grow outside of the race track and of course I had to include “horsetail” and roses (since it is basically a race for the roses)… and I LOVE how they turned out. We are happy to use our talents for such a great cause and I am glad that our past bride Mandy contacted me to do this event for the Foundation.

Just some lovely floral goodness we’ve worked on lately…enjoy!

I just finished these “Us at Age…” Table Numbers and Thank You Favor Cards for ETSY clients right before I put our store on “vacation mode” for the summer. These are by far the most popular items on my ETSY site and I’ve made a bunch of sets of them this season. Interestingly, the “Us at Age…” table numbers say the year instead of the age–this was the request of the client–we’ve done this once before and I think its cute to see where they were and what they looked like in a particular year. I look forward to doing more orders like this for my floral clients this summer and I plan to re-open the ETSY Shop to the rest of the world in the fall when our wedding season slows down.

I just started private art lessons with a new almost 10-year old student and art entusiast named Cassie. I’ve missed having an artist to guide in all things art so I was so glad that her mom contacted me. We’ve been busy doing some drawing fundamentals stuff in the first few classes we’ve had thus far.

The first day of class we worked on Pattern Development. I thought this would be a fun way to learn techniques while experimenting with all of the new art supplies I had her get for class. She got some “artist quality” colored pencils, a graphite pencil set ranging from 2H to 6B, a kneaded eraser (which might be her favorite thing as she sculpted it into a cat shape), blending stumps, a sketchbook, a bristol board pad, and a nice pen set (ranging from 005 to 08mm). She will never go back to lame kid’s school supplies for drawing again!

The second class we focused on Shading Techniques such as hatched line, cross-hatch, scribble, and learned how to create smooth gradients. We also delved into complimentary colors and how combining them creates a nice dark color which works great for shading. I made worksheets for all of these things so she could work on finishing them up at home. We only have an hour together a week so we usually don’t finish everything in class, but she always understands the concepts enough to complete them outside of class and bring them back to me the following week. I am really proud of her! She is a great artist!

I also made a worksheet for Cassie to further focus on Shading Techniques using a series of circles and a “light source” to determine where the highlight and shadow would fall on the ball/sphere. Cassie used graphite and a blending stump for these–I think she did a great job!

We also did some good old Still Life Drawing with some fresh white roses and vases I had at the studio. I shined an OTT-light at the vases to cast a shadow for the drawing and dimmed half of the overhead lights so there was more contrast on the still life. My work is the featured below with Cassie’s so you can get a better idea for the exercise. The first still life of the 3 flower vases we started with fine, faint, hard (2H) pencil lines to get down the shapes of the vases and flowers. Then we went in with some stronger, thicker, softer (HB, 2B, etc.) pencils and accented edges, emphasized shapes and contours, adding some shading, etc. We finished the pieces by adding some colored pencil accents. I love how they turned out!

After completing our still life exercise, we then worked on Couture Line Drawing techniques–which Cassie found challenging at first (as did I many years ago!) You can get the general feel from hers that it is a rose in a vase so I had her practice this technique more in her sketchbook as her “art homework”. As a result of the at-home practice she is getting better and better at contour line!

If you are interested in any of these worksheets, please leave me a message on this blogpost and I can email them to you. I have 2 pattern worksheets, the shading/light source ball worksheet, and the 2 ball/cube shading/line technique sheets. All featured in the projects above.

Today’s featured work of floral art is Ashley’s stunning flowers & pods bouquet from her Brookfield Zoo wedding. She wanted fluffiness and lots of texture so I used a combo of peonies, spray roses, brunia, lisianthus, ranunculus, sweet pea, scabiosa pods, lotus pods, and trachellium to achieve that feel. It was such an amazing bouquet and looked perfect with the rest of the wedding flowers and decor!

Image captured by our friends at Miller + Miller Photography

Although we do a lot of vintage looks at Kio Kreations, that is not all we do. We can also design a fabulous sleek and chic modern bouquet like we did here for Chicago bride Jennifer. Simple and elegant in design, this bouquet was made with lavender Ocean Song roses and white mini callas and the handle was wrapped tightly with lavender satin ribbon. It was perfect for her Chicago summer wedding.

Image by Victoria Sprung Photography

Our good friends Lindsay and Allan had a fun couples baby shower this past weekend and it was great! (Coincidentally they are also one of our past wedding couples too!)

Lindsay and Allan are having a boy in early June so we went with a traditional white and blue baby boy color scheme and added brown and gray to it. The shower was held at Lindsay’s parents house so we decorated it with beautiful floral arrangements, banners and balloons. We also had yummy Portillo’s Catering and my FAVORITE cupcakes for dessert–Chicago Cupcakes! (We also had those at my baby shower last year! SOOOO Yummy!!!)

For favors, Lindsay’s mom had Hershey’s bars and sachet bags filled with M&M’s. I made labels for the Hershey’s bars so they fit with the theme and the other paper items I designed, which included the banners and Celebrity Baby Name game cards.

We made 8 floral arrangements which were put all over the house. They were beautiful and springy and the tulips all popped open during the shower as the weather outside warmed up. We were able to go outside for photos too of the whole group of friends and babies, which was great!

Everyone LOVED this Baby Photo game. There were 18 guests, all of whom sent in a baby photo (to Lindsay’s mom) which I turned into a B&W image with a fun polka-dot border and hung them from a clothesline with mini clothespins. People had to guess who was who…it was funny–and WAY harder than we thought it would be. I got 5 wrong and had the best score!

This was easily the most fun shower I’ve ever been to–largely in part to the fact that both my husband and daughter were there and we have AWESOME friends! I am totally a fan of couples/couples with kids showers! There were 5 little babies and toddlers there including my own and it was just so cute and fun for them!  I cannot wait to meet Baby Z!!! Babies are the best!!!

All images and designs by Kio Kreations. Please ask permission before reposting.

I was able to help her “green it up” by making some succulent planters to soak in all of the bright light the space has to offer.

While visiting the new space, my daughter Aria did a little exploring of her own…and here are some of the cute photos Tasha took of her that day…she’s grown a lot since Tasha took her 3-month photos!

Photos by Redwall Photography

We absolutely LOVED making these gorgeous flowers for Sarah and Nick’s wedding at Belvedere Banquets in Elk Grove Village. Sarah’s bouquet was an amazing mostly white bouquet filled with cymbidium orchids, ranunculus, roses, sweet pea, lisianthus and gray brunia accents. The bridesmaids carried mostly purple bouquets with green accents, made with dendrobium and mini cymbidium orchids, stock, lisianthus, hypericum berries, roses and sweet pea. They looked and smelled amazing (because sweet pea is one of the best smelling flowers out there!) The rest of the personal flowers were elegant and coordinated beautifully.

We also made some fun paper products for the wedding including “Us at Age…” table numbers, painted canvas Thank You signs, and our signature monogrammed card holder.

There were three different styles of centerpieces for this event, 1) small full textural arrangements, 2) trios of submerged flowers and branches and 3) tall floral spray and branch arrangements atop pilsner vases. All of which fit perfectly in the space! Such a beautiful wedding!

We are SOOO happy for Sarah and Nick and wish them a lifetime of happiness! I cannot wait to do more of their family and friend weddings so I get to see them again!!! Congrats to you both!

All photos & designs by Kio Kreations. Please ask permission before reposting.