Book Page Pomander Tutorial

So, I've been busy...on Pinterest...yes, I know it's a surprise. While pinning away, I realized I was not really seeing what I wanted to create. Now, that's not to say it hasn't been done before, but none of my followed pinners were giving me what I wanted to see! And so the next tutorial was born...

Vintage book pages are everywhere in DIY right now, and I knew I wanted to use them in my shelf re-style seen here. Of course, how to use said pages was not decided immediately, but after looking at my collection of re-style elements {mostly garnished from other areas of my house!}, I badly needed something to "round" out the collection. A pomander would work beautifully! For those of you who don't know ~ and really, who would?? ~ the word pomander comes from the French pomme d'ambre, or apple of amber, and is typically a fragrant ball of flowers believed to be an early form of aromatherapy. Anyway...

This pomander will not be scented, though you could use scented paper if you wish.

Supplies for this project are fairly simple:
~ pages from an old book
~ styrofoam ball {mine was about 2 inches}
~ straight pins
~ flower shaped paper punch {size depends on how big you want the flowers and how big your ball is}

You can change just about anything with these supplies to make endless variations. Really the only constant would be the styrofoam ball and some sort of pins to secure the paper to the ball. I originally thought about using these pearlized head pins I found at JoAnn, but they were really too big for my small-scale project. If you're making a larger pomander, these would be a great option. For me, another time...

Begin by punching about a million paper flowers. No really, a million and one. Well, ok, not really a million, but you need quite a lot. You can always punch more if you run out.

For the next step, I found that it was easiest to work on the couch...nice, huh?! Grab a small bunch of flowers and spread them out on your couch cushion or armrest. Stick a pin in the center of each flower. If you don't want to work at the couch, you could always bring a pillow over to your work space. But trust me, this is the easiest method for stabbing and grabbing the delicate paper flowers {think how thin a book page is ~ this is what your flowers are like!} When you pull the pin out of the cushion, the flower will stay on the pin and ready to by stuck in the styrofoam.

I doubled up on some of the flowers to provide dimension, but you also want to slightly countersink the pin so the petals of your flower pop up off the ball a bit. Just use the tip of your fingernail to push the head of the pin in a little further, or a toothpick works well also. Continue placing flowers with edges close together. Don't worry if there's some styrofoam showing ~ you can cover this with single flower if needed.

Tip: If you're using a colored paper (not book pages), you may want to paint your styrofoam ball first. This will help ensure there are no white spots showing!

To hang the pomander, cut a length of ribbon, loop it, and glue or pin it to the ball. Add a bow or other embellishment to hide the end of the ribbon if you wish. Enjoy!