Skip to main content

Mother's Day Flower Topiary

Here is what I showed a glimpse of the other day - my flower topiary!




 I have been wanting to do one for quite awhile and finally, a couple weeks ago, I started.  I started by merely punching out flower after flower. First, using a Scallop Circle Punch, I began with the largest flower in the pale Pretty in Pink shade - and then a small bowl of Chocolate Chip brown flowers with our Stampin' Up! Trio Flower Punch  - while watching tv.

On the commercials, I glittered all around the edge of each pink flower with glitter glue and set them in rows on a plastic tray to dry. Then I tossed everything in to a basket and set it aside for another day.

Then about a week later, I decided it was 'pin-up' time!  So I rummaged around my stashes and found a half circle florist foam piece - and then a search for a vessel to set it into to. My small ceramic urn was just the thing! But a small bowl would have worked too - I'm sure we all have something! I grabbed my basket of punched flowers - and headed to the table.

I used tiny pins - don't even know where they originally came from, I just have a jar of them. But they are slender like sewing pins - so I guess you could use those too.

I insert the pin into the little brown flowers - to help anchor the pin better before inserting it into the large pink flower.  [* You could start with a bead  if you wanted to].

Next, you insert the entire flower assemble into the foam placing the flowers right up beside each other as close as possible!!! You may have to press down on the "collection" of flowers as you cover the foam in order to add another flower.

I did a few of these into the foam - when I dawned on me that the paper was too stiff.  The flowers at this point were "bucking up" too much and it was becoming a struggle.

My solution - I took the pink flowers off and squished each one - in-between my hands, pressing it into a ball and turning it around, pressing it some more - or alternately, folding it into soft 'pleats' and pressing that tight, unfolding and re-folding till the entire flower became - supple.  There will be little crinkles in the flower, but now that adds a certain charm!

This took me a few flowers to discover which method I liked the best - then I was able to finish the rest of them fairly fast.

Now, when I went to pin them into the foam in clusters - it worked, they squished up beside one another easily!!! :)



After finishing all the flowers - I had a few bald spots near the base.  I decided to try a different flower shape, and used a deeper pink shade - Melon Mambo cardstock. This worked really well.

I punched out some leaf stems - and stuck them along the ridge of the urn with glue dots.
Then set the topiary into the urn.

Only after did I decide to add the little embellishments to the top of the topiary - just to signify Mother's Day! That little bird is from our latest Stampin' Up! punches - one punch gives you the bird, the wing and the leaf stem shown beside the bird [ XL 2-Step Bird] .  My 'handle' so to speak, is another one of our new border punches, Scallop Trim Border  which I earned free during Sale-A-Bration. It will appear in the new Idea Catalogue coming in June.

Alternate Ideas
A person could do this even on a grander scale by doing a "double topiary ball" style using a smaller ball above the larger one.  A thin bamboo stick would be useful to attach the two together.

Or turn the whole thing into a hanging ball - by covering an entire foam ball and attaching a ribbon to hang it with  - they could hang on chairs for weddings!  Or just outside on the porch - spray the entire piece with a clear protective coat to make it waterproof!

You could cover a different foam shape with these - a wreath, or even a swan - wouldn't that be something!  Oooh, think I know what I want to try next!

Cheers!
Beverly

Comments

Carey said…
Cute. I can think of some ways to use this for parties. Thanks for the inspiration.

Carey Rogers
aka Roscoe's mommy

Popular posts from this blog

Fun with Tags!

That is exactly what I had with this tag.....amongst all the oodles of cards I am making for a craft fair coming up, I am taking breaks by making projects that use all kinds of different elements.  Sort of like a cardstock 'stew', lol.                                                          Cute  Gift Tag or Notecard TAG BASE  1. First, I started with a small piece of cardstock of 3 x 6 inches, folded to create a square 3 x 3 inch tag. 2.  I layered a BAJA BREEZE cardstock square on top of the tag - I used my SCALLOP TRIM CORNER PUNCH to create the pretty corners! 3. To rev it up a bit, I glittered the bottom of the tag with some of Dazzling Diamonds. TAG DECORATION 4. I stamped  my lil' WALRUS  on a punched out '1-3/4 in.' Circle  of Whisper White cardstock  - then while I "maske...

Shabby Chic Cookie Cutter Card

Hey everyone!   Today I am blogging about the card I made in the middle of the night, lol.  It started with the idea that I wanted to use the bear from Stampin' Up!'s Cookie Cutter bundle set {stamp and punch}.  My intended recipient loves bears and I was dying to do a shabby chic style card, so voila!  Some details: I dyed a piece of white satin ribbon using ink. Ink refills {liquids} are so helpful to create co-ordinating materials for your projects. Soft sponging of paler colours help to frame your main more colourful image. Add more details by layering accents such as my poinsettias and label.   Here is one of the  embossing powders from the Stampendous Fran-tage line called ' Shabby White '. See how bubbly and glittery it is?   There it is - I love doing soft colours paired with white for pretty styled christmas cards!!!  Hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday season this year, cheers!

Beautiful Birthday Card from my Daughter

I was ' speechless ' on my birthday when my daughter presented me with her own hand-made card for me! Reason is that when we got up that morning we were in each other's company and yet somehow she managed to sneak off into my craft room and pull this together without me knowing it - - I was totally caught off guard, lol -- and loved it!!! She has always impressed me with her creativity because she doesn't do hand-craft items very often - she is more of an 'online creator' - I have her to thank for all my web banners and general blog technical help :) I was happy to see the cute butterfly resting on the branch, that is something I would not of thought of! Anyways, it was a lovely gesture and a thoughtful card. Beverly SUPPLIES LIST  Stampin' Up!   Eastern Bloom and Kindred Spirit stamp sets. Bella Rose  Designer Paper Pink Pirouette cardstock.