HER DIY: Make your man a broquet this Valentine’s Day

Story and photos by Sally Ince

This Valentine’s Day why not treat your man to a little something extra that he certainly won’t be expecting.

Every now and again we lucky ladies get the surprise of fresh flowers from our special guy. Whether it’s for a special occasion or just because, when we get a bouquet of beautiful flowers we can’t help but smile and feel loved. As I’ve searched for ideas for a Valentine’s gift, I came across the idea of a DIY project called the “broquet.”

I decided to try this personalized project because my boyfriend has been surprising me with my own special bouquets throughout the year. It began on my birthday as the first gift he’s ever given me and then developed as little surprises after long days of work or when I’m feeling a bit blue just so he could put a smile on my face. This year I really wanted to give him something that makes him feel as loved as I did every time I looked at my flowers.

What I loved most about doing this project is the fact that it really can be personalized to the little things he enjoys while also repurposing things and using craft items that I already had to use. I began by using an old candle that I used so much that I burned the wick all the way down before all the wax had melted. However, this particular candle smelled like men’s cologne so I thought it would be fitting.

When doing the research for this DIY, I did come across a lot of other great base ideas including buckets, coffee mugs, beer mugs and beer can and bottles tied together, which would have all worked great if I didn’t already have something to repurpose. I then went and bought a variety of his favorite things: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, sunflower seeds, meat sticks and miniature liquor bottles. I even included a small 8-in-1 multi-tool knife because I think it might be the only inexpensive tool that he doesn’t already own.

I then used a hot glue gun to glue all of these items to skewer sticks, thus concluding the easy part of this project.

To add a little something that I had never tried before, I decided I would include bacon roses into the mix. This was a little more difficult and time consuming to construct, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Having worked with plenty of bacon in my time, I made sure to buy a pack of thick cut bacon to make it easier for me to roll and fold.

To construct my rose, I took each slice of bacon and rolled them at a slight angle [Figure 1]. Then while holding the bacon  I began folding the sides down until reaching the center, which makes a shape that resembles rose petals. You can also try and roll your bacon a couple times, then picking it up and continuing to wrap while turning the slice counterclockwise to form the rose petals. However, I found it hard to secure the base that way, so I stuck with the folding.

To secure the rose you’ll want to use two toothpicks, inserting them one on top of the other and in opposite directions [Figure 2]. If the bottom of the roses are in a slightly tube shape, it also works to fold a couple of the outside layers down to try and create as flat of a bottom as you can before securing it with the toothpicks.

Don’t worry if all your roses look slightly different. Not all roses look the same in real life either, but they’re still all beautiful, and in this case delicious.

Also as a side note, the roses will taste best when fresh. So if you can, I would recommend forming the roses and putting them in the fridge overnight so you can pop them in the oven as you put your items that were previously glued to your skewer sticks in the bouquet.

When you cook your roses, you can use either a mini cupcake tin or a baking sheet, and cook them at 375 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes and then let cool. You can also sprinkle a little brown sugar prior to cooking or drizzle a bit of chocolate after cooking if you’d like to add some sweetness.

If the roses fall over a little while cooking, don’t stress. As long as the roses don’t become unraveled they’ll do just fine and honestly while putting the roses on my stem I found the details were easier to see on the roses that tilted. [Figure 3]

For my stem I just so happened to have some old fake flowers that I wasn’t using. However, you can also find some cheap nonliving flowers at a local dollar or craft store. I then stripped my fake flowers down to the stem and the leaves.

When your roses have cooled, remove the toothpicks and simply poke the top of your stem through the base of the bacon roses, and voilà – you have your bacon roses [Figure 5].

Now as suggested before you’ll want to use that 45 to 55 minutes while cooking the roses to construct your bouquet. Since you’ve already glued all your other items to the skewers, you can now focus on the base. You’ll want to use a thick piece of foam to stick all your skewers in order to stabilize your bouquet. Having learning the hard way, it’s also easier to have a tall base to stick your bouquet in in order to maintain balance. However, even though I used a ball of foam and I had a short candle base, [Figure 5]. I was able to use the remaining candle wax to stick skewers in and either placed my heaviest items such as the 8-in-1 knife in the center and used three of the other heavy items, such as the liquor bottles with two on each side and one in the middle to maintain the balance [Figure 6].

To add some finishing Valentine’s details and because I can get a bit mushy sometimes, I also decided to wrap the back of the bouquet with some black tissue paper that matched the candle, made some quick hearts out of some red pipe cleaners and some remainder skewer sticks, and made the mini liquor bottles a little more manly by putting some bowtie stickers on the necks of the bottles [Figure 7].

Hopefully my boyfriend enjoys his special DIY gift this Valentine’s Day, and for more ideas on how to make a broquet for your special man, visit www.pinterest.com.

The post HER DIY: Make your man a broquet this Valentine’s Day appeared first on HER Magazine.