Carnival and Ikebana for Children

In Spain Carnival takes place in late February or early March, usually in the week prior to Lent. It is a week of indulgence and fun before Lent, and at school the children celebrate by wearing fancy dress costumes. Although this year’s festivities are very much subdued, we decided to add some colour to our house by creating a Carnival inspired ikebana arrangement.

Required Materials

My youngest daughter created a colourful structure using coloured ice-cream sticks, joined together with colourful loom bands (the small rubber bands children use to make bracelets).

Joining the coloured ice-cream sticks together with loom bands

She placed the structures on inexpensive colourful glass vases, making sure to vary the space between the vases.

Placing the first structure over the mouth of the vase.

Placing a smaller second structure in the second vase.

Placing the third structure in the third vase.

Finally, after much deliberation, she added two bright orange Gerbera flowers, using the structure to help balance the flowers in the vases.

Adding the first Gerbera- using the structure to hold the flower.

Initially, she had also chosen Ruscus along with Gerberas, however, after taking a few steps back to view her arrangement she decided that the Gerberas were enough, and that the Ruscus would hide the structures.

Adding the final flower- taking care to maintain asymmetrical space between the vases.