Recently, I did a baby shower for a good friend of mine. She is decorating her baby-to-be's room in this super cute forest theme. So, I ran with this idea for the shower. I
Supplies needed for this project:
- Pot or container to put the topiary in
- Styrofoam or floral foam for the base
- Dowel rod
- Paint or stain (optional)
- Moss (you can use the brown kind I did or there is green moss at the craft store, too - and it even comes in sheets!)
- Styrofoam ball(s) - you will need different sizes if make a double ball topiary like I did
- Glue gun
- Ribbon or other embellishments (optional)
- Decorative rocks (optional)
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| {Supplies were purchased from Dollar Tree and Walmart} |
Step One:
Cut your styrofoam or floral foam to fit inside your pot or container. Styrofoam cuts 'fairly' easily with a serrated bread knife or you can use an electric carving knife. Once you do a test fit, add some hot glue along the bottom edges and glue in place.
Step Two:
Cut your dowel rod to size. This will really vary for your own project and size of container, styrofoam balls, etc. You may want to lay it out on a table and lay out where you think the styrofoam balls and base container will go to get an idea of how long to cut your dowel rod. The top styrofoam ball will need to be inserted about halfway down onto the dowel at the top, and the larger styrofoam ball will be places approximately in the middle of the dowel rod, so keep this in mind before cutting.
TIP: An easy way to cut a dowel without any major tools -
1) Make a mark where you want your cut
2) Lay the dowel rod out on a cutting board
3) Using a utility knife, slice into the dowel all the way around
4) Continue to do this until you have a depth of about 1/4"
5) Snap the dowel rod into two!
Step Three:
Paint or stain your dowel rod. This step is optional, but I think the plain unpainted dowel rod won't look right for most projects. If you use acrylic paint, it dries very quickly.
Step Four:
Attach your styrofoam ball(s) to the dowel rod. If you are doing a two ball topiary, the larger ball will be located approximately in the center of the dowel rod and the smaller ball will be on top. Insert the top ball so about one half of the ball is inserted onto the dowel rod. You may want to secure the styrofoam with some hot glue.
Step Five:
Hot glue your moss to the styrofoam balls. To save you all some hot glue gun burns that I, myself, acquired, I would recommend using something (like a popsicle stick) to hold down the moss after you apply the hot glue. The hot glue seeps through the moss and will burn the crap out of your fingers if you do not. So. Not. Fun.
Note: You can interchange steps four and five. Do whatever is easiest for you. It was easier for me to attach the moss and then attach my styrofoam balls, but you could do it however you wish. I started doing it as posted, but I ended up taking the styrofoam balls off of the dowel to attach the moss. It was easier to move them around and get good coverage.
Step Six:
Insert the dowel into the styrofoam base. You may want to secure it with hot glue. This will help to keep it from falling over and shifting.
Step Seven:
Use moss or stones to cover up the styrofoam in your container. I originally was going to use stones, but it did not look the way I wanted, so I added more moss to the base. I did not hot glue this down, but you could.
Step Eight: (Optional)
Adorn your topiary with ribbons, small bird eggs or nests, butterflies, whatever you can think of. I wanted to keep mine simple so I added a few small bows.
Please note: this is an incredibly messy project. I had moss all over my kitchen when I was done. That stuff goes everywhere! Be prepared to vacuum when you are done.
Linking up:
Tatertots and Jello
