Creative Proposal Idea

If you or a friend are getting engaged soon, I’ve come up with a creative proposal idea to add a lasting keepsake to commemorate the event. If you want to do something special, make this paper flower bouquet as a keepsake of your engagement! It’s so easy, I promise!

Valentine’s Day is almost here and it’s a huge time of year for proposals to start flying around. Today I’m sharing a creative proposal idea that can be made in advance by the proposer, a friend, or a family member.

Searches around this time of year explode with search phrases like:

• best engagement ideas
• creative engagement ideas
• creative proposal ideas
• how to propose
• how to make a proposal special

Well, let me help by breaking it down: sentiment, forethought, and customizing it to you both are all standard in a creative proposal idea, but you totally get extra bonus points for creating a keepsake. If you have a printer, you can make this bouquet and even scent it to make it awesome to the Nth degree.

And don’t we all want “awesome to the Nth degree” when we’re talking about spending our lives with the guy or gal we think hangs the moon?

[Tweet “Take your romance to the next level: Valentine’s Day flowers that last!”]

Cut, Glue, and Impress

I’ve found my new Internet bestie even though she doesn’t know we’re friends. Okay wait – it’s not supposed to sound creepy…

I wanted a quick way to make paper flowers for my daughter’s room (project coming soon) and didn’t want to spend the fiddling around to come up with a way to make my own flowers from paper. A quick search later, I was floored to discover Lia Griffith’s tutorial. Because I wanted to make a couple of stand-alone roses, I changed the stems to be more meaty but otherwise followed her tutorial exactly and made a mini bouquet for a dress up prop for my daughter. I printed out Lia’s templates on regular ol’ copier paper and went to town.

Note: for the mini bouquet I made, I printed out 6 rose templates and I used 11 leaves.

If you’re going to do her tutorial, here are a few tips:

Tip 1: Don’t use card stock, use a flimsier paper (text weight). You can get any color or texture at a craft store or paperie boutique.
Tip 2: Add a little more ‘tab’ to piece number 4. It’s a tight fit otherwise and it has the potential to tear.
Tip 3: Curl some petals down and others up to add, mmm, je ne sais quois. Just do it ‘cuz it’s cool and this is my paper crafting peer pressure…
Tip 4: Snip a hole in the bottom of the conical shapes to help avoid losing the shape as you move it along the wire.
Tip 5: Use this template to print the outline on your own paper instead of her watercolor-print one. Easy peasy, yes?

For the bouquet, I mostly followed her tutorial but added a bit of the foam to make the bouquet handle appear more even (oops, just a touch of my crafting compulsiveness showing there). I finished it off by adding floral tape to cover and then a decorative ribbon.

Kick it Up a Notch

If you want to be even-more-awesome with your brilliant keepsake, kick your creative proposal idea up a notch and give those flowers a scent! Yep, you can use your love’s favorite perfume, cologne, or even essential oils. If you don’t know your partner’s favorite scent, ask friends, family, or just take something that smells like them to a perfumery for some help.

Quick break here before we get to the challenge – if you think this is a neat idea, can you share it to Facebook or Pinterest?

#myengagementstory

My husband surprised me and I honestly had no idea it was coming. Like our lives together to this day, my engagement story was full of fun and laughter.

We went to Panama over Christmas because my parents retired there quite a few years back. Unbeknownst to me, my husband had a wonderful plan to propose, the sneaky devil. After checking with my folks (how adorable and old-fashioned, right?), he put his plan into action when we were all opening presents.

I don’t remember if it was the last present I opened that day or not, but it sure was the last one I recall! It was a small gift, about the size of an iPad mini. Because he had just gifted me a new Apple product before our trip, I thought… Well, it doesn’t matter what I thought because when I opened it, my hopes were dashed.

Dashed, ya’ll. Why? He gifted me a beat up book. A used paperback.

“Um, thanks?” I managed to stutter, not hiding my utter disappointment very well.

Jeff: “Just open it, love.” So I did.

Me: {looking at a ring in a cut out section of the book} “Uuuhhhh…” I’m the epitome of eloquent, right?

Jeff: “So will you? Will you marry me?”

Me: {laughing and jumping into his arms} “Yes!”

Surrounded by my family, during the most wonderful time of year, and in a beautiful rain forest (did I forget to mention my parents now live in a rain forest?), it was pretty awesome, memorable, and ever so special. And I think I was the only person who had zero clue it was going to happen. I loved it!

So what about you? What’s your engagement story? If you don’t have the engagement story you want, how about writing the best one you could think of and sticking it in the comments below to inspire prospective engagees? Better yet, let’s take to social media and share our story with the hashtag, #myengagementstory – I can’t wait to read them!