St. Patrick's Day Floating Centerpiece!

I found this fun, clear plastic serving dish from the dollar store and was really excited to create a floating centerpiece with it! Since my intention was to use it for St. Patrick's Day, I decided my first step was to paint the outside gold.

Once the paint was dry, I cut down a section of floral foam and hot glued it directly to the inside base.

I wanted to use bright, interesting greenery and the large ruscus and variegated begonia leaves were my initial inspiration! *Sidenote - I didn't end up using the cream berries (top left) but did use the leaves.*

I started by adding in my begonia leaves as those were full and leafy and would take up the most space in the arrangement. Once those were in place, I cut up the stems of the ruscus and started filling in the gaps.

This serving dish needed a bit more greenery than anticipated so I grabbed some laurel and clematis and added it into the arrangement wherever I felt it needed to be fuller!

I wanted to bring the gold from the container into the arrangement with the flowers. I spray painted some arties, hand painted a veronica and some ranunculus flowers with metallic gold paint and added natural ruffled peonies into the mix.

I placed the veronica (the largest flower) first and then started filling in the other flower, making sure the colors were evenly distributed.

Ok so...real talk. This project was not heading in the direction I wanted. I tried several different accent fillers (none worked!) and I almost chalked the entire piece up as a fail. Then I found a branch of gold bay leaves that we had in the shop as part of our winter collection and knew I could pull it off! Do keep playing and experimenting with greenery and fillers - the perfect additions may come as a surprise!

For the final touch, I wanted to bring a little more of the white details so I pulled a few springs of tiny white floral blooms and popped them into the arrangement.

That helped to complete the piece and now I have a beautiful green, gold and white centerpiece that can be used for St. Patrick's Day or a seasonal spring piece!