I Just Found a Hack That Makes Trader Joe’s Flowers Look 10x the Price
If you’ve ever floundered over how to present a basic bouquet without it looking like a basic bouquet, I have the hack for you — and just in time for Valentine’s Day and Galentine’s Day gifting! This year, toss the plastic packaging and skip running out to the store to buy a new vase. Instead, try this DIY hack from Christina Clericuzio, also known as @flipdaddie on Instagram. Speaking from experience, this hack is the real deal. It’s cheap. It’s cute. And it uses items you probably already have around the house.
All you need is a bouquet of $10 flowers, a paper bag, scissors, tape, and a ribbon. Here’s what happened when I tried it.
The first step is, of course, to buy an inexpensive bouquet of Trader Joe’s flowers. (I chose Valentine’s Day pink, of course!) Now, I’ll admit it, I get on my high horse about always using reusable grocery bags, so the only two paper bags I had access to for this DIY were the ones that I took my flowers home in. That meant I had exactly two tries to make this work, and it wasn’t looking good after the first one.
I dove in with a sharp pair of scissors, and quickly realized the key is to cut off the bulk from the top part with the straps in addition to cutting off the bottom. The first try, I cut off the straps, but not that bulky section — this turned out to be a mistake. You want the smoothest part of the bag, which is the middle. Then, cut the bag to open it and make sure that both ends have a decent size section of non-folded paper, which will make rolling easier.
For me, rolling the bag into a cone was not intuitive. I kept venturing into tube territory. But, with enough finagling and some luck, I made it work. By twisting or untwisting, the cone could be made wider or narrower at the top or bottom. I used a cute gold polka dot washi tape to secure the cone once I had it in place.
Poking the holes for the ribbon was a little trickier than I anticipated. I was trying not to mess up the cone, while also trying not to stab myself, and that was a precarious assignment. I made it work though, and I got the ribbon through the holes without ripping the paper completely (that’s on me for choosing a wide ribbon).
With the assembly of the cone behind me, I dropped the flowers in, and voilà. While a bit finicky through the DIY process, this project actually is an incredibly simple and affordable hack to dress up a bouquet of Trader Joe’s flowers.
It’s the kind of DIY that is totally worth trying if you happen to have ribbon at home already, and makes for a really affordable and relatively easy way to dress up a basic bouquet. What I like even more is that it takes advantage of a material that would otherwise be heading to the recycling bin (and once gifted, still can!). I judge this the perfect hack for adding a thoughtful, playful touch to your next gift.
Further Reading
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