Hanging on the Vine

The large "to do" item still remaining on my Birithmas Peruvian scene is to make the flowers that will be on the tree and lattice work on the restaurant side. My friend's patio scene got wisteria, but I wanted something red.

Friend's blue wisteria hanging on the patio side

So I researched red Peruvian flowers (because the street side of my roombox is based on Arequipa in Peru) and found the Cantuta flower:

Flowers seem more pink than red but close enough!

So I painted my oriental rice paper in shades of red and pink. Thought I was being clever and made swirls and variations of the colors on the paper. However, once these tiny things are cut, rolled, punched, and glued, you can hardly tell each one had streaky hues of reds. Since real flowers are about 6" long, my flowers had to be 1/2" long max. Took a few hours but I rolled some cones and punched out flowers...and then glued them together to get my tubular flowers:

Step by step to get each flower

My tubular army

I started out trying to make the flowers about 1/2" long but my fingers were feeling arthritic so I began to make the tube parts longer and cut them down after the glue was dried just so I would have something to hold on to while trying to glue the flowers onto the cones.

While those were drying, I also replaced a very plastic fake looking plant in my crocheted plant holder. The plant holder came with this plastic plant but I wanted something more authentic. I liked the pot so I ripped out the green plastic and replaced with an agave leave plant kit I had purchased from Dioramapresepe on Etsy. 

Plastic plant needed to go

My agave leaves in place

Then I glued my tubes to my vines in my patio restaurant.

My little plant back in its holder and on the wall.

I still want to attempt a String of Pearls or a String of Turtles plant to go in a planter on the wall, but that's another day's project. For now, this patio restaurant is open for business!