Teacup Topiaries

Make delightful little 'trees' that seem to 'grow' right out of a teacup or small pot!


Medium (17" tall) Topiary in 6" Pot




I ...I ...I ...I ...I

I hope you are having a great spring--please sign my guestbook! Click here to go back home:

Materials list for Teacup Topiary:

• 1 teacup, sugarbowl, or small pot
• 1 foam ball: 2 1/2"-3 1/2" diameter
  (for aesthetic balance: should be a little smaller than the diameter of the opening of your cup or pot)
  (in the photo above I used a 6" pot and a 5" foam ball for a medium-sized topiary)
• Floral foam to fill cup
• White craft glue
• Spanish moss
• Small florist picks or toothpicks and fine wire
• Craft scissors
• 1 dowel, stick, or twig 8"-12" long for topiary 'trunk'.
  (should be about the diameter of a pencil, also: acrylic paint and foam brush needed if desired to paint 'trunk')
  (for medium or larger topiary, use appropriately larger trunk)
• 2 plastic bags such as you put fruit in at the grocery store
• Baby's breath or gyp for filler
• Roses, dried flowers, stattice, berries, pearl sprays, ivy, and whatever else you may want to cover the topiary (alternate theme suggestion: spools, baby items (small), buttons, beads, etc.)
• Ribbon for bow, if desired
• Glue gun and glue sticks
• 1 paper grocery bag

Directions:

• 1. Place opened paper grocery bag on surface to protect.
• 2. Hot glue floral foam to inside of cup. Fill it tightly.
• 3. Paint "trunk", let it dry, then poke it into the center of the floral foam. Pull it back out and put a little hot glue on the end, and stick it back in the foam.
• 4. Cover the top of foam with moss, glue on with thin layer of white glue.
• 5. Pour some white glue into one of the plastic bags.
  (a blob about the size of a nickel)
• 6. Place foam ball into bag, and shake it around until completely coated with a thin layer of glue.
• 7. Place crumbled moss into the other plastic bag.
  (if needed, use a rolling pin to crush the moss inside the bag)
  Alternatives to moss are crumbled dried flowers or petals.
• 8. Carefully plop the glue-coated foam ball into the bag containing the crumbled moss.(if you do this just right, you won't get your hands all sticky!!)
• 9. Shake the bag until the ball is completely covered with moss.
• 10.Remove the moss-covered foam ball and set carefully aside, allow to dry.
• 11.When dry, push the ball onto the "trunk" until it sits correctly, without tipping.
• 12.Pull it off and put some hot glue onto the tip of the trunk and put the ball back into place.
• 13.Using scissors, cut the long stems from your filler flowers, so that you are left with no longer than 1"-2" stems. Glue in little clumps all over foam ball, so that they stick out like a spiky haircut.
• 14.Start gluing your flowers, berries, and other decorations into place as desired. If your decorations have wimpy stems, you can use small florist picks to attach to them first. Always put a little white glue on the picks before inserting into foam ball.

Some may want to be very precise with the decoration, placing all matching flowers at exact opposite locations for balance. Some may want to just place things randomly. It is entirely up to you. In the photo above, medium-sized ribbon loops were wrapped onto florist picks and stuck in randomly around the ball.

• 15.If desired, make a small multi-loop bow and stick in place at the bottom of the foam ball, where the trunk goes in. You may have to use a florist pick for the bow also. Swirl the ribbon down the trunk and glue in place if desired.

In the Topiary above, I used:

• Cream and Golden Gyp for filler
• Gold Silk Ivy leaves
• Large Cream-colored Pearls on wire stems
• Purple pearl sprays
• Lavender pearl sprays
• Cream pearl loops on stems
• Large Gold-colored beads on wire stems
• 1" wide Cream lace loops on floral picks
• 1" wide Gold mylar ribbon loops on floral picks
• 1/4" wide Cream picot-edge ribbon loops on floral picks
• 5/8" wide Cream lace with lavender ribbon woven into it, looped on floral picks
• 1 1/2" wide wire-edged Gold and Cream brocade ribbon for bow

Before putting the flower filler on, I placed a small, battery operated set of 10 mini-lights on this topiary. I then followed the other steps to decorate it as usual. Since this was a centerpiece for a 50th Wedding Anniversary party, I wanted it to glow. I ran the cord down the trunk of the topiary, and wrapped the trunk with ribbon to conceal the cord. I then concealed the battery pack by squeezing it into the pot next to the floral foam and covered it with the moss. It was easy to move the moss slightly and turn on the switch. It was lovely! The mini-lights and these 'golden' items are sometimes only available during fall and winter, but some craft stores carry them all year long.

Places to go!

To Newsletter
Back To Crafts
Up coming Events Calendar
Kid's Craft Classes!

To More Sewing and Crafting Links
Go Home
No Frames Go Home