Have you ever searched through floral shops and bins of craft store flowers in search of the perfect flower shade only to be disappointed? When you have a really specific and unique color scheme in mind, it can be tricky to find flowers that will meet your needs. When you’re trying to use fresh flowers for a floral installation or decoration, it can be pretty much impossible to find unique colors. After all, you can’t really ask a floral farmer to create a flower shade specifically for you.  Luckily, when you’re using artificial flowers, you can dye or paint them to match the color that you need. 

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If you’re already a crafty person that is trying to create your own floral arrangements, don’t be intimidated by the prospect of dying or painting your own flowers to achieve the perfect color. Don’t second guess your choice and settle for something less. You’ll find that the process of painting your artificial flowers isn’t as difficult as you’d think. It just takes a little bit of planning and a little bit of patience as you go through the steps. Who knows, you might love it so much that you’ll always be painting your own flowers in the future! Here are a few details that will help you to know how to paint artificial flowers. 

How to Paint Artificial Flowers

If you’ve been having a hard time finding artificial flowers that perfectly match the color that your craft requires, don’t be afraid to paint or dye your artificial flowers! That is one of the wonderful parts of working with artificial flowers is that they can be dyed and painted permanently, and they won’t wilt at all! Here are a few tips that apply to painting silk flowers and wood flowers.

Silk Flowers

Since silk flowers are made out of fabric, there has been a development of many different creative painting and dying methods. Some crafters use acrylic paint and hand-paint each petal until they achieve the color that they’d want. However, because of the thickness of acrylic paint, this method can sometimes take away the soft, pliable texture of silk flowers. Mixing acrylic paint with water might help with this issue. Some crafters say that you can use food coloring to dye silk flowers. This method hasn’t been tested quite as broadly. 

One of the most popular methods of dying silk flowers is to use fabric dye. Since silk flowers are made from silk fabric, this type of dye is generally quite effective. You can prepare a bowl of water with the dye shade and submerge the silk flowers in the mixture. If you’re wanting to go for more of a dip-dye method to get a pretty gradient on the petals of the flower, you can put the dye on a plate and dip the petals until you achieve your desired color. This article includes a helpful step-by-step tutorial on how to use fabric dye to change the color of silk flowers. 

Wood Flowers

There are multiple ways to dye or paint wood flowers. Wood flowers are made from neutral-colored tapioca root, which makes them the perfect canvas to be dyed into any color.  You can dye your wood flowers using acrylic paint, which comes in all sorts of colors and shades. If you want to use acrylic paint, you’ll just prepare it by mixing it with water in a bowl until you’ve achieved your desired shade. You’ll then carefully dip your wood flowers using a toothpick or carefully dipping them with your fingers. You can even purchase acrylic paints that have a bit of metallic shine or sparkle at craft stores. That would create an unforgettable artificial flower! Check out this article for a tutorial on how to dye wood flowers with acrylic paints.

Another way to dye wood flowers is to use a specialized dye created specifically for wood flowers. This type of dye will use a similar process to other methods, since you’ll dip your plain wood flowers into the dye to color them according to your taste. Pair this special wood flower dye with wood flower softener to keep your flowers soft, pliable, and natural. Don’t settle for stiff, fragile flowers! This method will produce the most realistic flowers that are delightful to craft with. You can buy plain wood flowers in bulk and dye them according to all of your different color schemes for your individual crafts. 

Why Paint Artificial Flowers?

One reason why you should consider painting artificial flowers is that it helps you to save money. You won’t have to pay extra money to find fresh flowers in your desired color shade. Instead, you’ll be able to buy artificial flowers at a fraction of the price and dye them to match the shade that you want. Don’t sacrifice your style or your wallet and settle for something less. Your perfectly dyed flowers will look beautiful for years to come.

Another reason why it is a good idea to use dyed artificial flowers in your crafts and arrangements is that they are reusable. For example, if you’re creating artificial plant centerpieces that are green and tropical for a birthday party, you could repaint, rearrange, and reuse those flowers for a hanging floral chandelier feminine, romantic bridal shower. Or if you’re creating white and cream floral decorations for a traditional bride, you could repaint those flowers in bright and bold shades for a summer house decoration. 

Of course, depending on the type of paint or dye that you use, repainting might be a little bit more difficult. For example, you shouldn’t expect a dark navy flower to be able to be repainted to a pastel yellow shade unless you’re going to spray paint countless layers to achieve the color. (And even then, it still might not work out how you expect) Even if you don’t choose to repaint your flowers, you’ll be able to rearrange them into different decorations that will be used again and again through the years. Painting your own artificial flowers will give you endless possibilities when it comes to crafting beautiful decorations.