Homemade Paper Corsages + Boutonnieres and SVG files

I have not been to a high school dance in many, many years…but of all the memories that I do have from the ones that I attended, attaching a boutonniere to a sports jacket have always been ingrained in my mind as terrifying.

Can we talk about what it’s like to take a 3 inch stick pin and pierce it through the thick fabric of a sports jacket, then moving it through a cold, wet flower stem that is wrapped with green floral tape, and THEN having to somehow force this pin back into the sports jacket all while smiling for photos and not stabbing your date in the heart? I know I sound dramatic here, but there was seriously an art to doing this and if you attended a lot of dances, it was kind of like the black cloud of photo session time. (Thank goodness for the guys, wrist corsages were invented!)

All kidding aside, I am finally at the point in my life as a mother where my own children are attending dances! Last year, my son and one of his BFFs decided to go to prom together - so I wanted to make them flowers that no only matched their outfits, but were also keepsakes that they could keep forever. I also wnated a design that was comfortable and did NOT require the use of a stick pin! The pandemic had resulted in such a tough senior year for them - I’m pretty sure that moms around the world were more than willing to go the extra mile to make things memorable for their kids!

At first, I was really intimidated by making paper flowers. I had seen quite a few on different websites and became fascinated with how realistic some of them looked. I did not set out with the intention of making mine look realistic, but did want them to be unique and help tie all of the colors from dresses together. I also wanted to add some sort of icon or “critter” to help make them special for each person.

The first set that I made were blue and gold. The above photo shows a pick of the dress - it was gold but embellished with tiny blue sequins. I decided to use blue flowers and accent them with gold leaves. The boutonniere had large gold leaves and the corsage had a surfboard.

A 3M magnetic backing makes things so much easier!

I thought these turned out nicely, but I wanted to tweak the flower design a bit so that the center was a bit smaller. (Overall, the flowers are not too terribly large and I didn’t care for how the center petal.)

The next set was for Homecoming 2021 - and my daughter, who was in 10th grade, decided to wear MY PROM dress to the dance! It is a hot pink sequined dress and so I made her flowers to match. This time, I put a “critter” on both the corsage and the boutonniere. We live in a coastal area so many of us love being on (and in) the saltwater. The corsage got a sea turtle and the boutonniere got a sail fish. I cut these out of wood on my laser cutter and then painted them.

Next up is prom 2022 and I really started getting the hang of these! Also, I have been amazed at how these paper flowers can help tie everything together - thanks to Michael’s for having perfect paper colors! This next set was mint green with silver accents. The sea turtle and sail fish made another appearance, but - the corsage ended up being a hair piece! So very versatile and looked beautiful.

Another prom set - another hot pink dress with gold accents. This time, I decided to use resin on the “critters” to elevate them a bit.