Shhh... Mums the Word: A Texas Tradition

When we were on our house hunting trip in Texas, we saw these elaborate ribbons in a couple of the homes we viewed.  My daughter and I thought, "Wow, this girl must be really popular and really talented, look at all her ribbons!".  Well, it wasn't to soon after we moved here that we learned what those ribbons actually were: mums. 

"Homecoming mums are a Texas tradition that began in the 1920s. Fresh Chrysanthemum Flowers were originally used with a few ribbons and were given to boyfriends and girlfriends. In the 1960s, homecoming mums began being made from silk flowers with additional items added to signify what activities the students were involved in. The Homecoming mums have become a huge tradition in Texas and many girls keep the Homecoming mums to adorn the walls of their room to remember the year."
This year, my daughter decided she wanted one.  Now, no real crafter would actually  (open your mouth in horror) "buy" one, so off to the craft store we went.  Our first stop was at Joann's.  We carefully deliberated and decided on the ribbons we were to use ($40.77 worth).  Joann's didn't have everything we needed so off to Michaels we went.  Now Michaels was a whole other Oprah.  They had a gazillion things you could buy to make these mums or you could just buy a pre-made one for $29.99.  I seriously reconsidered just buying one as my daughter added the fake flowers, trinkets and you guessed it...more ribbon.  $58.00 dollars later we were armed and ready to create.  The scary thing is that this past weekend were coupon commotion days and I used several coupons, my VIP discount pass at both stores and it still came out to a total of $100.00!!!  WOW!!!
My next step was to create. I found directions on how to make mums from HERE:

The final product.

Just a sampling of all the ribbons we used.

Making the points (I double backed mine).

The ribbons adhered (Yes, that's my husband's pool table/my extra craft table...shh...don't rat me out!) ;)

A close up view.

Add your trinkets.

My military braid.  I LOVE how it came out!

My diamond back braid.

The mum portion in all it's glory.

My "not so little" girl.

She's so cute!  :)

I actually really like the way it turned out.  It was something I never created before, I had fun looking up directions and deciding on the design, and I learned how to make several braids that I can incorporate into my card making and/or scrapbooking.  Once I started looking up prices on the mums and how much additional items cost once you customize, I actually came out ahead.  I would have paid mega bucks for a mum like this one, especially with all the layering, braids and quality of the ribbons used.  Elaborate mums can cost as much as $300!!!  Not only that, I spent time with my daughter shopping, designing, creating and marveling.  You can't put a price on that!  =)

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