Sometimes, special occasions come around faster than we expect them, which is every holiday for me. When this happens, I find myself in need of easy, personal, and inexpensive gift ideas.
Whether it is Valentine’s Day or a birthday, I’ve discovered most people really prefer small, personal gestures over expensive gifts. One of the ways I like to do this is creating little themed bouquets, geared towards the interests of the recipient. Once you get a pattern worked out, coming up with ideas is rather simple.
When I put together any type of bouquet for any occasion, I try to stick to these three rules:
- Keep it reasonably small.
- Keep it inexpensive.
- Don’t add too much to it.
Now, with these rules in mind, a good little arrangement will include:
- A suitable container.
- Flowers (of course).
- A small embellishment or two.
- A simple note card.
For the purpose of this DIY, I’m using silk flowers, but by all means use the real thing if you can find them. Also, make sure the recipient isn’t allergic to a certain type of flower, because that would be awkward.
To prove flowers can work with any fandom, I’m taking a lead from my holiday gift baskets for grown ups, and scaled it back a bit by turning four shows and movies known for their darker sides into sweet little desktop arrangements.
Peaky Blinders
There don’t seem to be many happy endings in Peaky Blinders, but the Shelby Family knows how to throw a party. To make a Peaky Blinders inspired bouquet use:
- Purple and white flowers, to match the look of Grace Shelby’s wedding bouquet.
- A square glass bottle, with a “Shelby Company Limited” Gin sticker. You can purchase one of these stickers from sites like RedBubble, or design your own.
- A small silver cord or ribbon adorned with an aqua oval or teardrop plastic or glass jewel and a “razor.” (DON’T use a real razor. Cut out a razor shape on card stock and cover it with silver foil.)
- A Shelby Brothers Ltd. calling card. I made a printable card, so you don’t have to search for a good image.
Stranger Things
Here’s a more teen-friendly theme. I’m using the first season for inspiration, as it still has some of the most recognizable images. Let’s make this one a little cone bouquet, with:
- A paper cone made with scrapbook or wrapping paper resembling Joy’s flowered wallpaper (sans the “R.U.N.” graffiti)
- Tiger or spider lilies (these are the closest flowers to demogorgon).
- A cut out image of an “opened faced” demogorgon for your note card (write note on back).
- A string of little Christmas lights to wrap around the cone (you can find these in scrapbooking areas pretty much year round).
- A little waffle embellishment made from bakeable polymer, as shown below:
Preacher
Hard to believe that AMC’s blood-soaked adaptation of Preacher can be turned into a perky little flower arrangement, but it is a love story in places. Use:
- Tulips! (No other flower will do.)
- The “Domicile for Genesis” (actually, an Old Time Coffee can). Look no further than our friends at GeekDad for a great printable label, created by Will James, to fit around a small coffee tin. Will has also sold custom props of these, for those who would rather have a good one made.
- A paper cocktail umbrella. I have found black paper umbrellas around Halloween, but you can also color one black with wide marker craft paint.
- A cheesy red valentine, inspired by the pagers at Mumbai Sky Tower’s wedding chapel.
- A black cord or ribbon bow with silver triangle bead tips, to give a shout-out to Jesse Custer’s Johnny Cash-couture.
Deadpool
I was going to stop at three, but I wanted to turn the Deadpool image from my recent Geeky Valentine quotes into a bouquet. Deadpool is all about the warm fuzzies.
- A Hello Kitty cup or mug. Fun Fact: The official Deadpool Twitter account only follows one other account: Hello Kitty!
- Daffodils, because, when you find love “the whole world tastes like Daffodil Daydream.”
- A “Daffodil Daydream” air freshener note card. I printed out a screen shot from the movie, but if you want to be crazy romantic, you can get a real daffodil-scented car freshener.
- A candy ring pop. Only give the best.
- A little unicorn figure, the cuter the better.
Now that you’ve got the basic idea, think of your own fandoms, from Disney to DC Comics and let someone special know you are not only thinking about them, but you share their special brand of geekiness.
