Memorial Using Flowers From Dad’s Funeral

After the funeral, I took any flowers that no one else wanted and the ones mom didn’t have a donation plan for. Also, dad’s favorite color was blue so I made sure to claim any blue ribbon left. There were so many flowers. Mom left some at church. She also donated some to a nearby nursing home. My siblings took some and I took what was left.

I dried the flowers, another project I never tried before, by putting the petals in a cool dry place until the rest of my supplies came. I just laid the flowers out on a couple box flats but I read if you hang them upside-down that is the proper procedure. I just don't have the room.  I turned them every day or two so they wouldn’t get moldy.  

Ornaments were the one idea I felt would pay homage to my dad and not end up in storage. These balls can be used for the Christmas tree, which is my plan or display somewhere just by hanging them up.  One idea was to use a string of pearls attached to the ornament.  

First I got online and looked for clear bulbs. I wanted bigger ones without a seam. My preference was seamless because I wanted a glass look. They’re a lot of choices online and I settled for 24 bulbs at around $27.00 including shipping.  I got mine on Amazon and here’s a link to a similar product as I can’t find the original site https://www.amazon.com/Kanonaki-Clear-Plastic-Round-Ornaments/dp/B005HHSY86 When the bulbs arrived, they were in pretty bad shape and I panicked. I’ve never used these before and wasn’t sure what to expect but I sure didn’t expect they’d be all crushed. I thought I just wasted $27. Then my mind started to race as I wondered what other use I could find for the dried funeral flowers. 

After that panic subsided, I took a long handled spoon and pressed the dents out of the ornaments. That worked.  A few small dents remained after I undented (that is too a word!) with the spoon handle but the bulbs sat in a box for a couple days and those disappeared.  

From the idea on Pintrest, I needed a memorial note to go in the bulb with the petals. I copied the note because it was so great. I wanted an aged look so, while I waited for the flowers to dry, I used the same words as the Pintrest idea except I added dad’s name and dates. Several generations from now, if these ornament last, I’d like the people to remember whose flowers these are.  

Once I was satisfied the flowers were dry enough, I assembled the bulbs. 

First I put in the leaves and petals which I found were perfectly fine if I rolled them just enough to fit in the opening. They unrolled inside automatically.  I filled the bulbs fairly full and then went back and put in more petals because dad got a lot of flowers. 

Then I added the memorial note. Rolling the note and then unrolling it with my fingers was a little tricky. I had to move some of the petals out of the way. 

 I had to get my skinny fingers in there and unroll the note and there was a couple times where the note crumpled. I tried to use the long handled spoon and it just creased the paper and I didn’t want that.  I made a few extra notes just in case. After replacing the lid, I tied the silver hanging string on.  The string came with the bulb.

My last step was to take the blue ribbon from the display flowers and add it to the bulb. I’m not a bow person so I made a nice knot and I just wanted enough blue to drape across the bulb and not hide it. As luck had it, I had exactly enough blue ribbon—thanks Dad! I’m sure he planned that.  

Here’s the finished ornament. I've listed a couple links where I found this idea. As I said, “Not my idea at all.” I just wanted people to know how I made it work and I find this to be a much better memorial than a $100 candle. All it took was a little time and less than $30.

https://plaidonline.com/projects/christmas-in-paris-ornament

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a6/d5/94/a6d5944e444145ead464aa013bad15a3.jpg

https://www.etsy.com/listing/265842343/funeral-flower-keepsake-ornament?

Here they are in a box in wait for Christmas. I’m going to wrap the entire box and let mom, who, in her efforts to adjust has probably forgotten all about the flower project, hand the ornaments out. I made enough, one for each of us kids, mom and grandkids, plus a few extra. Hopefully it will be a little like having a bit of dad with us each Christmas going forward.