Birthday Ikebana for Children

To celebrate a special birthday last weekend, we decided to make a birthday-inspired ikebana arrangement. Brainstorming with my daughters, I asked them “what sort of things make a birthday special?” Along with the usual answers, presents, candles and cake, the soon-to-be birthday girl specified that she didn’t want just any cake, but preferred cupcakes this year. Just the mention of cupcakes gave me a wonderful idea for a birthday-inspired ikebana using paper cupcake cases as unconventional material.

Materials

In-person classes are back in full swing in my studio, so I had plenty of leftover material for my daughters to use.

Having chosen a vase, the birthday girl folded corydaline leaves and placed them on a kenzan. As a balance to the heavy corydaline leaves, she added some thin steel grass.

Finally, instead of flowers, she folded cupcake cases, and added them to her arrangement using double sided tape.

We both agreed that the very first cupcake case she added seemed out of place and so she placed it higher in the arrangement.