I’ve been seeing orange stems arrive on my screen lately, and I love the rich, vibrant color they give for the summer months.
A quick internet search to purchase some for our home either had me wondering about quality or impatient with how long they’d take to make it to my tabletop.
I decided to test out the ole reliable and affordable midwestern home decor store we all know and love: Hobby Lobby. I was quickly surprised that my sure thing of finding some orange stems there wasn’t so sure after all, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Hobby Lobby had this pack of oranges of various sizes, so I grabbed two of them.
I then tried to find a stem that looked as close as possible to the orange stems I’d found online, and ended up purchasing five of these fat ficus branches.
I then hot glued my oranges to the branches, using the larger oranges on the bottom of the stems, the medium sized in the middle of the stems, and the smaller oranges at the top. Before gluing I divided out the oranges and each branch got 5-7.
I let them dry for about an hour before arranging.
Once everything was dry, I put them into a flower frog I got thrifting a couple weeks ago. These nifty little devices are new to me, but came in really handy for this project!
And here’s the finished project!
I really love the blue vase and orange flower combo.
A couple things to note: these branches are pretty flimsy, so I would suggest a vase with a smaller opening to help support the branches.
Also, on a few of the oranges that I glued on, I grabbed a nearby leaf and glued it to the back of the orange as an extra support for the glue to grab onto, but I wish I would have done it to all of them so you couldn’t see the glue on the back of any of the oranges. I’d do that differently next time!
Each branch of oranges cost me roughly $3.35 before tax. I’m really happy with how the whole thing turned out! Be sure to share if you give it a try!
